Die me, They got to me
by michael1812
Summary: The crew of Moya is confronted by a ScorpiuspossessedCrichton who takes over Moya in order to get the wormholetechnology that Crichton possesses into Scorpius's evil hands.
1. Hypnotizing Meteorshower

Chapter 1

"Crichton, the wormhole knowledge in your mind is the only thing that can stop the Scarrans.  
Why won't you help me?"

Crichton stares into the eyes of his enemy.

Scorpius looks back.

He almost seems - human.

"I have nothing to do with this." John said to him.

"But you must..."Scorpius tried to say. "...you are the only one that has this knowledge! This power! You are the only one..."

"Who can stop the Scarrans?"John shouted back at him. "Who can open wormholes? Who can create a wormhole weapon?  
No,...I'm just the messenger.  
And I say no."

"The Scarrans will destroy everything."Scorpius went on. "They are monsters..."

"Aren't you part Scarran Scorp?" John shouted back.

Scorpius eyes begin to glow.

"Doesn't that make you a monster?"

John looks at him one last time and walks away.

"You can trust me, John."

Scorpius blocks his path.

"Help me...and I help you."

"How's that Scorpy? Gonna fetch me a stick and stroke my belly?  
I will not help in mass-destruction, Scorpy."

"But what about the Scarrans? They will destroy everything!  
Isn't that mass-destruction?"

Scorpius's eye twitches.

"I don't see any alternatives, John." Scorpius finally said. "Help me, or die."

John looks at him again.  
"No."

"Don't be so ignorant, Crichton. I know you can be reasonable."

"I am reasonable, Dracula. You know my answer. Now get out of my way."

John pushes Scorpy aside and Scorpius hisses.

"What's going on?"

D'Argo enters the room and John faces him.  
"I was just..." John tried to say, but when he turned around, he saw the room was empty.   
"Frell." he whispered.

He was going insane.

"What's the matter John?" D'Argo asked.  
You didn't answer on the comms so I came to check on you."

"I'm fine."John said with doubt in his eyes.  
"I'm just...hallucinating."

"Hallucinating?"D'Argo asked.

"Never mind...it's just..."  
Suddenly he was struck by an insane painful feeling in his head.  
It felt like a lightingbolt hit him.  
But he knew this feeling.  
He felt it before.

With a flash he was back in the Aurora-chair.  
"Are you comfortable, John?" Harvey said to him, looking at him with a terrible grin on his face.  
John screamed his lungs out.

"Open your mind, John Crichton! Tell me everything!"

Flash.  
He was standing in front of a door.  
He looked around and he was on earth.  
It was the 50's and he wore a bright white salesman's jacket and sunglasses.  
The door opened.  
Scorpius stood in the doorway.

"Hi."John said. "I was wondering if you would be interested in..."

"Wormholetechnology?" Scorpius asked. "Please do come in."

"On second thought..."John said, "Perhaps later..."

FLASH.

John leaned back into the Aurora-chair. This time the cuffs were loosened.  
Harvey stood before him, leaning on the iron chair that went round and round and round.

"Wormholes."Harvey said and smiled.

"Why stop the ride!"John shouted. "Why not continue this torment?  
I've been down this road before. You of all people know that!  
Scarrans and Delvians and Ancients and,...well you!"

"Your mind has grown stronger since the last time you were probed." the neural clone of Scorpius' bright and colourful personality said.

"So what now, Harvey?"John asked. "You've seen the others have their go at me, and now yóu want to give it a shot?"

"It's not like that, John." Harvey told him nicely. "Orders have been given, and I'm not a person who disobeys command."

"Sure you ain't."

John looked his nemesis in the eyes.

John knew it wasn't him. He looked like him. He talked like him. He killed like him.  
But he wasn't the real thing.

The real thing, Scorpius, was on his Command Carrier, snooping the Unchartered Territories like a bloodhound in search for John.

But now that John has his neural chip in his brain, and his neural clone in his mind, he will never go anywhere without Scorpy watching him.  
John could feel his breath down his neck.

"I'm going to ask you again, Harvey..."John said and stepped out of the Aurora-Chair.  
"Get the frell out of my brain or..."

"Or what?" Harvey said to him.

John wanted to finish his sentence, but he didn't.  
The look in the eyes of his enemy hit him with an impact of a hypnotizing meteorshower.  
Or a sudden jump into a wormhole.

Suddenly John realised that resisting the neural clone wouldn't have any effect.  
He's already in his head; already in the fortress he's trying to create to save himself from Harvey's sudden jolts into his brain.  
John's had them before. It was his subconcious, making John aware there was something wrong with him.  
Something Scorpius had done.  
The jolts were only remembering him that Harvey was searching for the wormholeknowledge that was hidden in his brain by the Ancients.  
Something that shouldn't have been there in the first place...

John felt Harvey digging deeper into his mind.  
"Screw you!"John shouted at him, trying to stop him, like he has always done before, but this time it wasn't enough.  
"No John." Harvey said. "Quite the opposite..."

FLASH.

"John!" D'Argo shouted and grabbed his shipmate as he fell to the floor.  
He tried to wake him up, he tried smacking him in the face and tried shaking him, butJohn wouldn't wake up.

"Zhaan!"D'Argo shouted trough the comms. "Get down here, quick!"

Zhaan was having breakfast with Aeryn and Rygel and awoke from her heated discussion with Rygel about Hynerian food and stood up.

"What's the matter. D'Argo?" she asked over the comms.

"It's John!"D'Argo said and dragged his body over the floor. "He's fainted! Something must be wrong!"

"He could be asleep."Aeryn said casual, overhearing the conversation and joining in.

"How can you tell the difference between Crichton awake and Crichton unconcious?"Rygel said.

Zhaan looked at him from the corner of her eye, but did not stray from the subject.

"Take him to infirmary!" Zhaan said and rushed away, and Aeryn followed her.

"What's the matter?"Chiana said when she and Jothee walked past Zhaan and Aeryn.

"There's something going on with John."Aeryn said, whilst quickly stuffing a footcube in her mouth and grabbing her gun.  
She quickly added: "Probably nothing." before turning the corridor.

She hoped there was nothing wrong.

"Yeah." Chiana said to Jothee "Probably nothin'."

"D'Argo!" both Zhaan and Aeryn shouted simultaneously.  
Zhaan and Aeryn found D'Argo unconcious on the floor, about to wake up with a headache.

"Where's John?"they asked.

"I don't know."Ka D'Argo answered with his hands on his head.  
"After he hit me on the head, all the lights went out and I saw myself hitting the floor.  
Frelling son of a ...#hyrscha!"

He hissed and turned his head, bfore realising that thismovement with his head frelling hurt.

"John?"Aeryn said through the comms, hoping that John didn't just knock one of their shipmates to the ground.  
"John, can you hear me?"

She sighed.

"His comms must have broke." she concluded.

"There's nothing wrong with his comms."D'Argo said and pulled himself off of the floor.  
"He's just not answering them."


	2. Frell Crichton

"Chiana!"  
Zhaan jelled through the comms.  
"What's up?"Chiana answered. "Is Chrichton all right?"  
"We don't know."Zhaan said, "He knocked D'Argo to the ground and ran off."  
"Doesn't sound any different then usual."Chiana said, smiling at Jothee.  
"Chrichton is not answering the comms either,"Zhaan continued. "...and Pilot can't seem to locate him."

"Why not Pilot? Why can't you locate Chrichton?"D'Argo shouted at him.  
"I am sorry, Ka D'Argo, but my DRD's can't seem to locate him." Pilot said calmy at the angry Luxan.  
"Then we'll perform a tier by tier search for him." D'Argo concluded. "Aeryn, you heard me?"  
"Loud and clear D'Argo." Aeryn answered over the comms. "He's probably gone back to his quarters. I'll search there first."  
The former Peacekeeper commando knew John Chrichton maybe more then the others did.  
This didn't sound like him at all.  
Something had to be wrong.

Rygel wasn't keen on D'Argo's idea to search every frelling tier one by one for Chrichton.  
Frell Chrichton, he thought.  
But he was also one of Moya's crew and like the rest he should search for Chrichton, because it would be the right thing to do.  
"Frell Chrichton," he whispered again.  
Rygel zoomed off into the common room.  
Wait a minute.  
He heard footsteps in the corridor that he just left.  
Could it be?  
Rygel tried to be as quiet as possible.  
Chrichton may have lost his mind.  
Could be homicidal.  
With the luck that Moya's crew always had, he should be.  
"Pilot!"Rygel whispered.  
"I found Chrichton! He's right in front of me! Tier 11!"  
Quickly Chrichton dissapeared out of sight.  
"Pilot!"  
"Follow him!"D'Argo answered over the comms, as he heard the Hynerian's voice.  
"Don't let him leave your sight."  
"Should have said that sooner!"the Hynerian answered."He's gone!"  
"Find him."the Luxan said with anger in his voice.  
"Chrichton will pay for the frelling headache I'm feeling now!"

Rygel levitated down the corridor.  
Chrichton was nowhere in sight.  
Suddenly Stark ran gibbering out of a doorway and startled Rygel.  
"What the hezmana are you doing, you idiot! Chrichton has lost his mind and is running around the ship with a pulsepistol and you're not even trying to save yourself!"  
"I'm not as desperate as you are, Rygel, you little greedy slug, you're always on the run, aren't you?  
No, I don't run. Not anymore. Scorpius...Scorpius...Scorpius...Scorpius!"  
"Stop that you frelling thoddo! You're gonna get us both killed! We have to find Chrichton and kill him before he kills us!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"  
Commander John Chrichton stumbled down the corridor in front of them.  
"Chrichton!" they both shouted.  
Rygel backed off.  
Even Stark seemed more nervous then usual.  
"What's the matter, Sparky? Wat are you trying to ímply? That I'm a murderer?"  
"No, of course not Chrichton."Stark said.  
He smiled reluctantly at his friend.  
Chrichton seemed out of focus and out of touch with the real world.  
"Chrichton, snap out of it!" Rygel shouted at the human. "D'Argo, Aeryn and Zhaan are out there searching for you!  
They think you finally snapped and went crazy! D'Argo is coming right this way now!"

"Rygel!"D'Argo's voice hollered.  
"Have you seen Chrichton!"  
"I'm over here, D!"  
Chrichton seemed somewhat vacant, but his crazed behaviour was the same.  
Maybe he was turning back to normal.  
"Are you sure you're ok, Chrichton?"Stark asked.  
"Yeah, yeah,"Chrichton answered. "I've got a mild headache, but I'm fine.  
At least, I think I'm fine. God knows what happened to me."  
"What do you mean?" Stark said. "You don't remember anything?"  
"Nope."the estranged human answered. "Mind's a blank."

"What the frell did you think you were doing?" the angered Luxan shouted. pointing his Qualta-Blade in the air and grabbing Chrichton by his neck.  
"I don't know."Chrichton answered, not resisting the angered Luxan.  
"I can't remember much."  
"You fainted! I had to drag your frelling ass down to the infirmary and you hit me on the head!"  
"Damn, I'm sorry about that."  
"Well, you should be! It frelling hurt!"  
"Where's Chrichton?"a voice suddenly shouted.  
Aeryn jumped in front of Chrichton.  
"You had me searching the entire frelling ship for you!"  
She slapped him.  
"Au..."  
"What the frell did you think you were doing!"  
D'Argo, Aeryn, Rygel and Stark were all confronting Chrichton with his strange behaviour and were looking for answers.  
"I don't know!" John said. "Last thing I remember was seeing D'Argo walking into the room and then there's this huge gap in my memory,...and then..."  
He tried to remember, but he couldn't.  
"...and then I was in the Cargo Bay, and I had nó clue what I was doing...I tried to comm you guys but my comms must be broke..."  
Aeryn ripped his comms from his chest and examined them.  
"He's right."Aeryn said and turned to D'Argo. "It's definitely broken."  
Although she didn't think it was an accident that it broke, she didn't say anything about that.  
"Is Chrichton alright?" Chiana and Jothee asked as they too walked in on the rest of the gang.  
"I'm fine."Chrichton answered for the fifth time.  
"My head just feels like it's splitting open."  
"Join the club."D'Argo said.

Flash.

"THEY ARE NOT BUYING THAT!  
THEY CAN'T!"  
Commander John Robert Chrichton sat on a couch in a cozy livingroom, somewhere on Earth.  
There were pictures hanging on the wall, with smiling families and dads fishing with their sons.  
A t.v. stood in front of the couch.  
The t.v. showed pictures of what Chrichton saw through his own eyes.  
He saw Scorpius gaining the trust of his friends.  
He saw himself doing all those things, but he couldn't do anything to stop it.  
"They did not..."  
"But they did!" Harvey said laughing.  
Harvey jumped up behind the televisionset.  
He layed his ellbows on the t.v. and stared at Chrichton with a victorious smile.  
"It won't be long now."Harvey said.  
"Soon I will have taken over Moya and her crew. Soon you will be back into your precious chair."  
Flash.  
The comfy couch was replaced with the Aurora-chair.  
Through the window shined a bright and uncomfortable light that shined into Johns face.  
"Do you never get tired of being wrong, Harv?"  
"Not when I'm right."


	3. Blinded by Love

Casually Commander John Crichton walked down the tiers of Moya.  
He knew that his shipmates were still watching his every move closely.  
So he also knew that he couldn't carry out his plan, without getting caught in the act.  
And that wasn't an option.  
He would need all the time he could get.  
So therefore, there was no alternative.  
He needed a diversion.

"What áre you two doing?"  
D´Argo walked in on Chiana and Jothee who made a startled reaction to his sudden presence.  
"We were just...just talking..."Chiana slowly answered to her lover.  
Jothee looked upon his father.  
Did he suspect something?  
"I was showing him your quarters."Chiana quickly added.  
"Yeah,..yeah,...I was telling Jothee about his courageous father!"  
"What kind of thing did you tell him?"D´Argo kindly asked.  
He smiled.  
"Nothing embarrassing I hope."  
Chiana looked at her lover, and was surprised he really didn´t have a clue.  
Lovingly he joined her side, laying his hands on her fragile shoulders.  
"She told me about your imprisonment on Moya." Jothee spoke.  
He tried to cover their act entirely, but he didn´t have to anymore.  
D´Argo didn´t know, because he didn´t want to see it.  
Chiana kissed him.  
A feeling in her stomach was telling her that this was wrong.  
She was betraying D´Argo in the most terrible way.  
Sleeping with his son...  
She kissed D´Argo, but did not look him in the eye.  
"Crais and Talyn have just contacted Pilot. They found someone who can help Moya heal.  
A Diagnosian."  
"And what about Crichton?" Chiana suddenly said.  
D´Argo grabbed Chiana even tighter and sighed gently.  
"He´s also gonna take a look at Crichton."  
Chiana didn´t speak for a second.  
Jothee sat down on the bed and looked at his father, and his lover.  
Could he tell him?  
Would he understand?  
This is the first time he´s ever fallen in love with someone, whilst not in slavery or in captivity.  
Someone who wants the same thing, loves the same thing.  
And they want to do it together.  
And they have all the time and freedom in the galaxy to do it.  
Could D´Argo understand?  
No, he wouldn´t.  
He would be furious. He would try to kill him. He would be blinded by his love for Chiana, this small, grey fugitive Nebari girl.  
The first person that D´Argo really got to love ever since Jothee´s mother, Lo´Laan, died.  
Jothee understood.  
Their relationship should remain a secret.  
For now.  
"You really believed I wouldn´t help Crichton?"D´Argo said surprised.  
"No,...it´s just..."  
"Of course I would´ve helped Crichton. He put his own life at risk to save my son!"  
"Yeah, but...this morning you seemed to want to kill Crichton..."  
"Chiana,..."D´Argo said to Chiana and tried to calm her down, "Crichton is my friend. Maybe he is acting crazy lately, but he´s still my friend. You know what Scorpius did to him.  
And you know I can get pretty angry sometimes, but hey..."  
He touched her shoulder again.  
"Everybody says some crazy stuff when they´re angry, but they never mean it. Most of the time anyway."  
He smiled again.  
It killed Chiana that he was being so friendly.  
Perhaps if he beat her, or betrayed her, then it would have been so much easier to confess everything to D´Argo. To hurt D´Argo.  
But now every lie piles up on all of the other lies, and one day everything is going to blow up into their faces.

Suddenly Pilot´s voice creaked through the comms.  
"I have received another message from Crais and Talyn."he spoke.  
"On my way, Pilot." D´Argo said, kissed his princess and left the room.  
"Wait!"  
Jothee and Chiana followed him to Command.  
There Zhaan, Rygel and Stark also stood.  
"The Diagnosian has accepted our proposal and has send us the following co-ordinates."  
The crew watched how Pilot displayed a hologram of a planet called 'Valadoc'.  
"Never heard of it." Rygel said.  
The planet seemed to be barren, with few colonies on either side and covered with lakes.  
"The Unchartered Territories have a way of always being unknown or undiscovered, Rygel." Zhaan said to the Hynerian Dominar.  
"But that doesn´t mean this Diagnosian is telling the truth. It could be a trap."  
"It can´t." D´Argo said. "This Diagnosian has the best reputation of them all. His name is mentioned on several planets."  
"Scorpius...Scorpius...Scorpius..."Stark said over and over.  
"Shut up you raving lunatic!" Rygel snapped at the Banik slave. "I still say it´s a trap!"

"Don´t I get to say anything?"Jothee said and the crew was surprised to hear him speak about this subject.  
"Crichton put his life at risk to save mine. And now he´s going insane because of his generous choice.  
Should he be punished for his heroic act? Or should he be praised?  
I think he deserves help. Right now. Don´t leave him to suffer like this."

"Where ís Crichton?" Chiana suddenly said.  
It took a second for the crew to understand what she was saying.  
"Aeryn is gone to look for him." Zhaan replied. "Why d´you ask?"  
I want to know, that if we choose to nót go to this Diagnosian, how long Crichton can be able to stay sane, or survive for that matter, until we find anóther Diagnosian that does seem the right one."  
"I agree." D´Argo said. "This could be our only chance to get help for Moya and Crichton.  
I say we do it."  
"So do I." Stark said. Suddenly he seemed perfectly sane.  
"And I also agree."Zhaan said.  
"Alright." Rygel said. "But I still have a bad feeling about this."

"What do you think, Pilot?"Zhaan asked him. "How´s Moya doing?"  
"She´s doing fine, thank you Pa´u Zotah Zhaan, but she´s still in a lot of pain."  
Zhaan closed her eyes briefly as she was reminded of her necessary, but brutal act to save Moya from death.  
Pain instead of death, Zhaan wondered, is that a good trade?  
"I have already established a course to Valadoc. We shall arrive their within 4 arns."  
"Will Talyn meet us there?" Zhaan asked.  
"I,... and Moya,...hope so." Pilot said and his holographic face disappeared.

"Where were you?"  
Aeryn walked towards Crichton and grabbed him by the arm.  
"I was hungry," Crichton replied and pulled his arm away.  
"Why are you asking?"  
"I have been looking for you for an entire arn!"  
"What´s then that damn important?"  
"Yóu are!"  
Aeryn almost seemed desperate to get through to Crichton, but he seemed even more jumpy and vacant as usual.  
"We have found a Diagnosian that can help you." she said.  
It seemed like she was expecting some kind of reaction from Crichton.  
"Is that it?" he suddenly and angrily replied.  
"Is that the reason why you were looking for me this entire time?  
The only thing what I need to know, is what time we arrive there and what time I finally get to take this frelling thing out of my brain!"  
He walked off.  
Aeryn looked at the love of her life and sadly looked away.  
"I was only trying to help."  
John stopped. He turned around slowly.  
For a second, he seemed to smile, but when Aeryn blinked again he seemed sad...  
"I´m sorry."he said. "I´m just, very, véry confused right now. The Scorpy in my head is driving me insane.  
Keeps telling me to turn myself in, that I should surrender myself to Scorpius.  
I´m trying so hard nót to go insane, and it´s just..."  
Aeryn put his hands on his cheeks.  
John looked at her.  
Tears came out of his tired, and crazed, sparkling blue eyes.  
"I can´t take it anymore."  
They lovingly embraced eachother.  
John´s sad and crying face turned into a victorious smile as he smelled Aeryn´s hair.  
For a microt, Scorpius got out of charachter, but swiftly returned to his former role, as Commander John Crichton.  
"It won´t be long now." Aeryn said.  
"In 3 arns we´ll be with the Diagnosian and he´ll get that frelling chip out of your head."  
"You´re right."John said.  
"You´re absolutely right.  
It won´t be long now."

Crais had indeed sent out a message to Moya, telling her that he found a Diagnosian.  
But Harvey had intercepted the message before Pilot could read it and changed the co-ordinates.  
Instead of Valadoc, the medical facility, Moya is heading towards a Peacekeeper controlled planet called Yo´brakh, where Scorpius´s Command Carrier will be waiting for them.


	4. Have a Safe Flight

'Luitenant Bracca ?'  
'Yes, sir ?'  
'Has the message been sent?'  
'Yes, sir. About two arns ago.'  
'Good.' Scorpius said.  
That was the only reason why he had to be on the Command deck.  
There was not much left to do, so he returned to his quarters.  
'Sir, if I may ask...'  
Scorpius remained in the doorway, and turned around.  
'You may ask.'  
He liked luitenant Bracca. Scorpius knew that this young man would become a fine captain someday. He had all the characteristics for one.  
Ambitious, honourable, responsible and just.  
He became somewhat his mentor, during the time on this Command Carrier, and taught him many aspects of what would lie ahead in his career and what kind of choices he would have to make.  
He would know, he has already made them. And now he must pay the price.  
'What kind of message was that?'  
'A low-frequency binairy code,' Scorpius answered and walked out of the doorway,' in the form of a high pitched tone.  
There are few who can hear it, or understand it.'  
'But who would receive that message, sir?'  
Scorpius smiled.  
'That is highly classified information! But I will tell you nonetheless.  
It was meant for my neural chip, that resides in John Crichton´s mind.'  
'John Crichton?' Bracca said.  
Some Peacekeeper officers looked upon Bracca when he mentioned that name, because it was famous.

It´s the reason whý they where on this Command Carrier in the Unchartered Territory.  
They were pursuing this human, who, rumours has it, has the key to unimaginable power.  
First he blew up Scorpius´s Gammak Base, then escaped from his grasp at the Royal Planet and then offered himself up to save a friend at a Shadow Depository, which he then robbbed and destroyed, leaving Scorpius with nothing.  
But Scorpius wasn´t angry, nor was he sad, which led to the thought that he had something up his sleeve.  
But of course, they didn´t say any of these rumours out loud.  
Peacekeeper officers could never question an order or could ever ask about official business, unless they were high at rank obviously.

'Let´s discuss this somewhere privately.' Scorpius said and led luitenant Bracca to his quarters.  
Scorpius sat down in his chair, and Bracca stood beside it, in military position.  
'I put a neural chip in John Crichton´s mind, to extract from him the wormholeknowledge he possesses.'  
'If that was it´s primary concern, sir,' Bracca asked, 'Then why did you sent it additional orders?'  
'You are very keen to notice the message for it´s true meaning.' Scorpius said.  
Bracca took the compliments well.  
'I´m sure you´ll make an outstanding officer someday.' Scorpius added.  
'But for now, listen carefully, because there´s more to the story then I previously said.  
'Inside the neural chip, resides a neural clone of my own personality.  
This clone is searching John's mind for the wormholetechnology, but it has more capabilities.'  
'Like what, sir?'  
'The neural clone can, if it has firmly welded itself into John´s mind, take his mind over entirely and leave to a designated area where I shall meet him and extract the chip out of his mind.'  
'So the orders contained the co-ordinates of your meeting?'  
'Well, to cut the story short,...yes.'  
'Then, aren´t we supposed to meet him there? Shouldn't we be setting a course to those co-ordinates?'  
'The co-ordinates are already set in the navi-computer, luitenant.' Scorpius said.  
'Then why aren´t we...'  
'In one arn, three Peacekeeper officials are coming to this exact location, to investigate my dealings in the Unchartered Territories.  
I must speak to them, before I can travel to Yo´brakh to meet with John Crichton.'  
'Yo´brakh?' Bracca asked.  
He heard of that place.  
It was a Peacekeeper prison, where only the criminally insane are locked up.  
And you have to be very crazy to be send there.  
'But what of we miss him, sir? What if his friends find a way to get the neural chip out of Crichton before we find him?'  
'That´s where you come in, my friend.'  
'Sir?'  
'I want you to fly a Marauder to Yo´brakh and meet with Crichton, and keep him there until my arrival.'  
'Yes, sir.' Bracca answered. 'I shall go at once.'  
'Outstanding.' Scorpius said. 'Have a safe flight, luitenant.'  
Bracca left the captain´s quarters.  
"That kid is going to be a hell of an officer someday..."

"Commander Crichton!"  
John was summoned up to Pilot´s Den and whilst trying nót to fall down the shafts, walked towards the blue captain of this living ship.  
'What´s up, Pilot?'  
'I´d like to ask you what you were doing in the neural cluster just now.'  
'In the neural cluster?'  
'Yes, commander. I was going to ask you then, but your comms device seems to be broken still.'  
'Yeah, I accidentally left it in my laundry.'  
'If that was supposed to be amusing, commander, jokes like that are not wasted on me.  
The others are trying to contact you and because you´re comms are broke I can´t get their message to you!  
'Yeah, I get the message, Pilot, and no that wásn´t a joke. Who wanted to talk to me?'  
All of them actually, but they couldn´t seem to find you. My DRD´s found you in the neural cluster, so therefore I ask you: what were you doing down there, commander?'  
'Oh, nothing...'  
'I suggest you go back to your quarters and stay there, commander. I don´t want you walking around Moya like this.'  
'What do you mean ´like this? Like what?'  
Pilot sighed.  
It seems his arms were operating on their own, managing multiple systems on Moya and maintaining life-support and Moya´s navigation, but it was the fact that Pilot´s multi-tasking ability that made him able to do all those things at the same time.  
'You´re mental status is something to be questioned with, commander. Now go.'  
Crichton seemed like objecting to Pilot´s command, but he raised his arms and walked away.  
Two DRD´s followed him, and watched his every move, making sure he was going to his quarters.  
'I feel like a prisoner.'John said.  
'You know Pilot is right, don´t you?'  
D'Argo stood around the corner, with his arms folded and his Qualta Blade on his back.  
'Yeah, kind of.' Crichton answered.  
'You do remember what happened this morning?'D´Argo said.  
'Yeah, I...I know...it´s just.  
It´s just so confusing, you know what I´m saying?'  
'Yeah, John, I understand.'  
Harvey smiled when D´Argo looked away.  
He didn´t understand.  
They all just say that to comfort him.  
Harvey knew.  
He could use their sentimentality to his advantage, by playing the tormented victim.  
No-one would suspect him.  
Until it was too late to stop him.

Harvey had a plan.  
All he had to do, was to turn Moya´s crew against each other.  
And then Harvey would have his diversion.


	5. There is no Scorpius here

"What´s the matter, Zhaan?"  
Stark tried to start a conversation between him and the troubled Zhaan.  
He could read her concern in her face.  
She tried to hide it, but she didn't to a good job about it.  
"Is it that obvious?" Zhaan said.  
She was piling up medical supplies in the infirmary and she looked up to the Banik Slave who became her lover and equal.  
"Tell me what's bothering you." Stark said. His words were spoken gentle and wise, the exact opposite of the crazy words he speaks when his thoughts dwell on Scorpius.  
"Scorpius..."he mumbles, before he stopped himself with much difficulty.  
This wasn´t the time to go mad.  
'It´s Crichton.' Zhaan said.  
'Crichton?'  
Everyone on the ship seemed to talk about Crichton.  
'Crichton is suffering horribly.' Stark said.  
'I know.' Zhaan sighed. 'Perhaps more then you know.'  
'What do you mean?'  
'Whenever I am close to him, I can feel his pain.  
His true pain.  
He´s trapped, he´s suffocating, he´s dying...' Zhaan said.  
'Please don't be sad for Crichton.' Stark said.  
'Yeah, please don't.'  
Crichton stood in the doorway.  
He seemed annnoyed.  
'Crichton,' Zhaan said. 'We were just talking about you.'  
'I noticed.'  
He walked towards them unstable and staggering.  
His eyes were red and his hair was like he just got out of bed.  
'John...' Stark mumbled.  
'Hya Stark.' John said.  
He seemed to gaze upon Stark for a couple of microts, and he began to smile.  
'Something the matter, Crichton?' Stark startledly asked.  
'Nothing.' Crichton said. 'Have you seen D´Argo?'  
'No, 'Zhaan answered. 'We have not.'  
'Shame,...'John said.  
He wanted to leave, but suddenly he saw Zhaan's face.  
'Zhaan? What's the matter?'  
Zhaan suffered from John's pain.  
His mental agony became to much for her.  
'Nothing.' she said.  
Stark felt it too. Only much less.  
The bond that still existed between Zhaan and John, that begun with them sharing unity almost a cycle ago, strengthened Zhaan´s spiritual powers and made her feel John´s agony.  
Stark looked upon his love and then looked upon his tormented friend.  
Zhaan was feeling John´s pain, but he didn´t seem to show much of the pain Zhaan was showing.  
Maybe he could withstand more pain then Zhaan. John díd survive torture by a Scarran, and withstood Scorpius´s Aurora Chair for quite some time.  
'Are you sure you´re alright, John?'  
'Yeah.'John answered. 'I´m right as rain.'

His nose was itching.  
'Damn I hate it when that happens.'  
He couldn´t itch, because his restraints wouldn´t let him.  
John Robert Crichton found himself in a difficult situation.  
'Damn you, Harvey!' he shouted.  
His voice seemed to echo down his subconscious mind.  
The t.v. was still on.  
The t.v. showed events from his childhood.  
His birthday, his friends, his mother...  
The remote was laying on the floor in front of him.

FLASH.

'Aren´t you enjoying yourself, John?'  
Harvey walked around the chair.  
John watched him in the corner of his eyes.  
'This is my mind!' he shouted. 'And I will not be imprisoned here!  
So frell off!'

FLASH.

'John?' Stark asked.  
John seemed to shake about and his eyes turned away.

FLASH.

'This is pointless, John!' Harvey said.  
'The story of my life, Harv!'  
Bright sunlight shone into John´s eyes again, and he realised he was back at the Gammak base.  
He was strolling down the ruins on top of the base which he destroyed, where Brianna saved John from Scorpius on that fatal day, almost a cycle ago.  
She died, so that John could live.  
'And look what her sacrifice has brought the galaxy!' Harvey shouted.  
John grabbed his pulsepistol and pointed it towards his oppressor.  
'Death and despair, that´s what.'  
He appeared from behind Crichton, casually and slowly.  
His black, leather body-suit reflected the pale sunlight.  
'And it all could have been prevented, if you hadn´t escaped that day.'  
'That dreadful day...'John repeated.  
He shot Harvey, but he missed as he swiftly disappeared behind a wall.  
'Why are you running, Harv? ´Fraid you might lose?'  
'On the contrary, John.' Harvey said and appeared behind him again.  
Quickly John turned around, only to be knocked down to the floor.  
'The only thing I´m afraid about,' Harvey said to his beaten opponent.  
'...is that you might die.'  
As his adversary laid unconscious before his feet, Harvey smiled, and went back to the land of the living.

FLASH:

'I´m fine.'John said, as he crawled back upon his feet.  
'Don´t touch me!' John shouted as Stark tried to help him up and he aggressively pushed his friend away.  
John angrily walked away.  
Zhaan´s pain seemed to fade away, but Stark turned his face away from his lover.  
'Stark?'  
Zhaan tried to talk to him again, but he seemed agitated.  
'Scorpius,...Scorpius,...Scorpius,...'he mumbled again.  
'But there is no Scorpius here!' Zhaan said, as she tried to comfort Stark, but he went even more berserk.  
'But he is here!' he shouted. 'Scorpius is in his mind! In his head! In his dreams! In his thoughts! In his nightmares!'  
Zhaan grabbed her lover and pressed her forehead against his.  
'Is Scorpius in his heart?'  
Stark calmed down.  
'No.'he said. 'He isn´t.'  
'Then there is still hope for John Crichton.'


	6. Singing in the Rain

"Did you enjoy it?'  
Rygel passed Chiana in the corridor and couldn´t help but say what he just found out.  
He watched a security holovid and saw Chiana and Jothee together in Cargobay 4.  
Naked.  
'What do you mean?' Chiana asked.  
Rygel smiled as he saw the frightened look in her eyes.  
'You...and Jothee...'  
'What do you mean?'  
'Stop acting like you don´t know what I'm talking about, because you do.  
D'Argo´s gonna kill you, you know.'  
'Yeah, only if he finds out. But he won't. Will he?'  
'I´m not the sort of person that carries secrets...'  
He smiled.  
'If you tell him,' Chiana said, and grabbed Rygel by the throat, 'I´ll cut out you´re mivonks!'  
'Let me go you insane tralk!'  
'Promise me you´ll not tell him!'  
'You´re playing with fire, you know that! D´Argo´s madly in love with you! If he finds out, he´ll kill you both! You know about Luxan hyperrage, don´t you?'  
'I know! Now promise me...'  
'I promise! Now let me go!'

Crichton smiled as he watched Chiana and Rygel leave the corridor.  
Everything is going according to plan...

He was supposed to stay in his quarters, but Crichton managed to avoid detection by disabling Pilot´s DRD's and avoiding Moya´s crew.  
He also created blind spots in Pilot´s sensors while he was down in the neural cluster.  
In these blind spots he could do whatever he wanted without Pilot noticing.

"Crichton!"  
"Damn!"John thought, as Aeryn walked towards him.  
"What are you doing here? Pilot wanted you to stay in you´re quarters!"  
"Damn, you heard that didn´t you?"  
He didn´t have time to talk to her.  
He needed to find D'Argo within 300 microts.  
"Yes, I did hear that. Now get back to your quarters."  
"You sound like my mother." John said.  
"No, John. You´re scaring me. You´re starting to freak me out. You´re starting to freak the others out."  
"Don´t you trust me?"  
"Of course I trust you. We´re just concerned about you´re own safety, that´s all."  
"Sure it is." John said.  
"Please John, do as Pilot asks. Do it because I ask it."  
John hesitated.  
Harvey knew that John Crichton would never ignore Aeryn´s wishes.  
'Allright, I'll go back to my quarters." John said.  
"Thank you, John."  
"But there´s one thing I´d like you to do for me."  
Harvey just thought of something brilliant.  
This way he didn´t have to be with D'Argo, and he would have some extra time on his hands.  
There´s still a chance everything could go wrong, but if the circumstances are right, and the people involved are in the same place, events have a way of structuring themselves...  
"What?"  
"Could you please tell D'Argo to go back to his quarters? I left something there for him."  
"What did you ..."  
"It´s a surprise." John said, and his eyes turned red.  
"Okay, I´ll tell him."  
"Thanks."  
"But you make sure you get to your quarters and have some sleep okay? You look awful."  
"Sure." John said and smiled. "No problem."

Aeryn Sun watched him leave the corridor singing: "#I´m singing in the rain!#", and wondered how long it would take until they would reach the medical facility...

'D'Argo,..!' Aeryn said.  
She contacted him over the comms as she left the corridor, looking for Zhaan, who wanted to talk to her about Crichton.  
'What is it, Aeryn?' D'Argo answered.  
He was at Command, trying to analyse the Diagnosian's message, at Pilot's request.  
Pilot had noticed something was wrong with the transmission from Crais, but needed a second opinion to confirm his suspicions.  
'John wanted to ask you something.'  
'Why doesn't he ask me this himself?'  
'Because I sent him to his quarters.' Aeryn answered.  
'Good for you.'  
'Thanks.'  
'Wat did he want to ask?'  
Aeryn thought for a microt about John's strange request.  
'Something about a surprise in your quarters, and that you should go there right now.'  
'Right now?'  
'I think so.'  
'Well,' D'Argo said, 'I'm kind of in the middle of something.'  
He was still trying to analyse the message.  
'Have you noticed something, Ka D'Argo?' Pilot asked.  
His holographic face appeared again.  
'To be honest, there seems to be nothing wrong with the message.'  
'Are you absolutely sure?' Pilot asked again.  
'Do you want me to take a look at it?' Aeryn said.  
'Please.'D'Argo said.  
'I'll take a look at it after I've talked to Zhaan.'  
'Thanks.'  
D'Argo left the message at Command and walked away.  
'Sorry, Pilot.'  
'It doesn't matter, D'Argo.' Pilot said. 'At least you tried.'

Crichton smiled as he listened in on Moya's crew by means of the comms system they eagerly used.

'Why did you summoned me here, Zhaan?' Aeryn asked as she entered the infirmary. 'What's the matter?'  
Zhaan approached her in her Delvian gown. She looked like a princess, and from Stark's point of view, who stood next to her, she was.  
'First, I ask of you to turn your comms-device off.'  
'What for?'  
Just do it, Aeryn. I will not speak to you before you've turned it off.'  
Aeryn did what she asked of her, and took her comms-device off.  
'Why the frell was that necessary?'  
'Crichton.' Stark said.  
Zhaan guided Aeryn out of the doorway, so that no-one could eavesdrop on their conversation.  
'We think he's being controlled by Scorpius.'  
'By Scorpius?'Aeryn said. 'But how is that...'  
'Not by Scorpius himself, but by his clone, that resides within the neural chip in Crichton's mind.'  
'But how can you know that?'  
Stark´s eyes began to glow.  
'I felt it. And Zhaan too.'  
'I feel John´s pain. His true pain. The John Crichton that you see is not the one you know.  
He has his intelligence and his memories, but not his love, and his passion.'  
Aeryn didn't know what to say.  
'I refuse to believe you,' Aeryn said.  
She turned around and walked out of the infirmary.  
'I won't.'  
'But you must!' Stark shouted.  
'Can you not see that it is not him!'  
'I refuse to believe you!' Aeryn repeated.  
But she didn't say it to convince them.  
She was saying it, to convince herself.  
She walked out of the infirmary without saying anything to either Zhaan or Stark.  
'What now?'Stark said.  
'We have to find Crichton.'

John watched Aeryn walk out of the infirmary.  
He had heard the entire conversation.  
'Gotta love that girl.' Harvey said and disappeared again in the shadow of the tier.

Ka D'Argo smiled as he walked the corridors of Moya towards his quarters.  
He was happy. More happier then he ever has been in his entire life.  
He was loved by someone who loved him too, he found his son and liberated him from slavery.  
They were a family again.  
The only thing they had to do, is get to the Diagnosian and pay the money to help Moya and Crichton to heal.  
Money they had, so there wasn't a problem in the entire galaxy that they couldn't solve.  
The only thing they did have to do, was avoid Scorpius, but Moya's crew had escaped them before.  
They would be safe in the Unchartered Territories, where no Peacekeeper could find them, and where they would have all the time to be happy again.  
Nothing in the galaxy could ruin D'Argo´s happiness...  
Nothing.  
Except...

As he opened the door to his quarters...he caught his son and his lover together.  
Naked.  
Tears poured down his cheeks and into his beard as he watched them trying to cover themselves up, and trying to calm D'Argo down.  
D'Argo didn't say anything.  
'D'Argo.' they shouted at him, but still he didn't say anything.  
It killed them that he didn't say anything.  
It tortured them.  
'Father...'  
'NO!'  
Finally he spoke.  
Chiana and Jothee knew they deserved this.  
They almost couldn't understand D'Argo´s ranting as he spoke whilst shouting and crying.

His dream turned into a nightmare.' Harvey said.  
But it has only just begun.'


	7. Peacekeeper Intuition

"D´Argo!"  
It was Zhaan who was the first to follow D'Argo´s tantrum over the comms and found him yelling at Chiana and Jothee.  
He knocked his son to the ground, as he would if it would have been anyone else who slept with Chiana.  
"He´s your son!"Zhaan shouted and grabbed his arm.  
D'Argo yelled again, saying Luxan swearwords the rest of the crew had never heard before.  
"D'ARGO PLEASE! Don't hurt him!"Chiana shouted too.  
Stark watched everything behind Zhaan´s strong shoulders.  
"I knew this would happen."Rygel said as he also entered the scene of the crime.  
"Shut up!"D'Argo shouted at the small Hynerian Dominar.  
"Don't tell that to me!"Rygel shouted. "Tell that to him!"  
He pointed at Stark who was being hysterical again.  
"Stark, calm down!"Zhaan said. "Calm down!"

"What the frell is going on down here!"Aeryn shouted and even D'Argo looked up at her before he resumed yelling at Chiana and Jothee.  
"How could you?"he shouted.  
"After all I´ve done for you!"  
His tears made his eyes invisible to the naked eye.  
"We're sorry, okay?" Chiana said, "We're so sorry...we never meant to tell you like this!"  
"When were you going to tell me, huh?"D'Argo shouted.

"Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius,..."

Chiana didn't know what to say.  
"Dad!"Jothee said. "We were going to tell you."  
"Sure you were." Rygel said.  
"Shut up!"D'Argo yelled, grabbed the Dominar by his throne and threw him down the tier.  
"D'Argo!"Zhaan said.

"Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius,..."  
"Stark, calm down!" Aeryn said. "Scorpius has nothing to do with this!"  
"But Crichton does!"  
A lightningbolt struck Aeryn in her brain.  
Crichton.  
"Scorpius, Scorpius, Scorpius,..."  
Crichton.  
"Crichton, Scorpius, Crichton, Scorpius, Crichton!"  
She grabbed her pulsepistol and ran off.

Crichton told D'Argo to go to his quarters.  
Crichton knew that Chiana and Jothee would be there.  
Why would Crichton do that?  
Aeryn knew.  
She was a Peacekeeper Commando. Trained to think like a soldier at all times.  
It was a diversion.  
He knew D'Argo would be so upset, that he would alarm the entire crew to his discovery.  
Everyone would be present, and they were.  
Even Moya and Pilot would be distracted by the personal crisis that took place in D'Argo´s quarters.  
Except Crichton.  
He wasn't there.  
He was planning his plot.  
He was doing his thing.  
Well, not his thing, but Scorpius´s thing.  
But he was doing it John Crichton style.  
Scorpius has no knowledge of Leviathan-physiology.  
Crichton does.  
The chip in his mind sapped Crichton´s knowledge and took over his body with one objective in mind.  
Scorpius.

These things went through her mind as she ran down the tiers of Moya, hoping that she would be wrong.  
Her Peacekeeper intuition was telling her that she was right.

"Get out of my sight, right now!"  
D'Argo shouted at his lover and son, knowing that they broke his heart.  
They obeyed his wishes, knowing that they betrayed the one man who would do anything for them.  
Anything.  
"Chiana, perhaps it would be better to..."Zhaan said.  
"Not now, Zhaan." Chiana answered.  
D'Argo stood in his quarters for a microt, after he realised the entire room was drenched in their scent.  
He yelled and stormed out of the room.  
"D'Argo,..."Zhaan tried to say, but again her words were cut off.  
"Leave me alone!"

At exactly that point, all the lights went out and bulkheads exploded.

Harvey: "Well that can´t be good."

AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Pilot screamed out of agony, torment and pain and all that but then doubled and multiplied by a thousand.  
Harvey yanked all of the kables out of the cluster and re-routed them to command.

If they knew what he was doing, they could've stopped him, but it now it was too late for them to do anything. Harvey's plan had worked.  
It was actually the same routine that Durka pulled out when he tried to take over Moya, but this was better.  
Pilot had no way of stopping him of intervening.  
It was perfect.  
Moya would continue on flying towards the Peacekeeper Base.  
And no-one could stop that now.  
Not even Pilot.

"Pilot!"  
Aeryn, Zhaan, and D´Argo all shouted through the comms to find out what the frell was going on.  
"Someone´s in the neural cluster!"  
Again he shouted.  
Moya could feel his pain too.  
Every system on Moya was short-circuited because of Crichton´s doing, except the ones from Command.  
"Where´s Crichton?" D'Argo shouted.  
"He must be in the neural cluster!"Zhaan said and they ran down the corridors, only to discover that the doors couldn´t open.  
"Everything´s out." D'Argo said. "Every frelling system on Moya"  
"Thank God you´re not shouting anymore." Zhaan said and smiled.  
"Very funny." D'Argo said and grabbed his Qualta-Blade.  
"Stand back!"  
The blast of his Qualta Blade was fierce, but not nearly enough to even scratch the doors of Moya.  
"Frell."

Harvey opened the last door that stood in his way towards the Command deck.  
From there, he would have complete control of Moya.  
"I love the smell of victory in the morning!"he said as he walked upon Command and gazed upon the stars in front of him.  
"Forgot something have we?"  
In the left corner of his eye stood Aeryn Sun, with a gun pointed at his head.

As the door closed behind him, he smiled upon his enemy and raised his head into the air.  
He could smell her fear as he didn´t try to act as John anymore.  
This was Scorpius.  
She could see it in his eyes.

"Aeryn, can you hear me!"

"Aeryn Sun." Harvey said.  
"Icarian company, Pleizar regiment. A Peacekeeper in heart and soul."  
"That's in the past." Aeryn said as she aimed for his heart.  
"But then how did you knew that I was coming here?"  
His voice was cold and chilling, no longer the voice she loved to hear.  
"I thought by myself: what would I do if I wanted to take over Moya?"  
"Exactly my point, my dear."  
He walked around the Command deck, trying to confuse her.  
"You used your Peacekeeper training to know of my intentions.  
It´s in your blood, my dear officer Sun."  
"Where's John?"she said.  
Harvey heard the desperation in her voice.

"Aeryn!"he shouted again.

"John´s gone, my dear,"Harvey said. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me."  
"Then what did you do to him?"  
Harvey smiled again.  
"You´re looking at him!" he said as he put his hands in the air.  
"You fail to understand the understand the extent of you´re friend´s misery!"  
"Do I?"  
"He wanted me to take over. He wants to go to Scorpius!"  
"You're lying!"  
"Am I?"  
Harvey´s eyes were glowing as he was weakening his enemy´s focus.  
"Don't you remember the Shadow Depository? Need I say more?"

"Aeryn!"

"John is strong. Stronger then you ever will be! You haven´t cracked his mind and you never will!"  
"On the contrary, officer Sun." Harvey said. "I already have.  
Let me go to Scorpius. He doesn't want all of you! Scorpius has no use for a bunch of prisoners and a Leviathan! Let him have Crichton, and you all go free!"  
"Out of the question!"  
Harvey sighed.  
"How noble of you, to die for a friend."  
"He wasn't just my friend." Aeryn said.  
"I loved him."

John Crichton closed his eyes.  
This was the worst case of bad timing he ever laid eyes upon.

"But then there is no other option!" Harvey said and walked towards Aeryn.  
"If you love John Crichton so much,...you´re going to have to kill him!"  
Harvey smiled as he watched her cry.  
With a quick strike of his fist, he hit the pistol out of her hands, and with another he hit her unconscious.  
"Oh Romeo, oh Romeo," Harvey whispered, "...oh where art thou, Romeo?"


	8. Overcome by Darkness

"Hello, my fellow crewmates. This is John Crichton speaking."  
He stopped for a moment, and thought of the look on their faces.  
Harvey had restored the comms-system to speak to Moya´s crew.  
As they were all stuck on a tier with the doors jammed because of the systems overload, they were forced to listen to their new captain.  
"I am glad to inform you that I am the new captain of Moya." Harvey said.  
The words came so gently out of his mouth, but a feeling came over him that made him cherish the moment while it lasted.  
"You´re command will not last long!" D'Argo shouted to his former friend. "I guarantee you that!"  
"Ah,..." Harvey said. "The noble Luxan. How´s your head?"  
D'Argo hissed.  
"What have you done with Crichton?" Zhaan asked.  
"He resides in my subconscious, my dear, and so if you kill me, you kill him."  
"No, no, no,..." D'Argo said.  
"I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to do so much worse!"  
"Indeed." Harvey said.  
He was beginning to get tired of this conversation, so he got to the point.  
"Dear crew of Moya, if one of you is foolish enough to even get close to Command, then I will kill Aeryn Sun."  
"What!" both Zhaan and D'Argo shouted.  
"As there is nothing wrong with your hearing, I must get back to more important matters.  
I have said enough."  
He sighed with a smile.  
"Have a nice day."

"He can't have taken Aeryn." D'Argo said in the darkness of the damaged corridor.  
"Aeryn would have never let herself be captured by an enemy."  
"But would she let herself be captured by a friend?" Zhaan said.

"Crichton?"Chiana said.  
"Zhaan? Aeryn? Anybody?"  
No-one answered.  
"What's happening?" Jothee asked. "Is this normal?"  
"This is way but normal." Chiana answered.  
As they left the corridors all the lights exploded and left them blind and afraid.  
She couldn't believe Crichton would do this.  
"It's Scorpius."she said stuttering and looking over her shoulders like prey, running from his predator.  
"He must be on Moya." She said scared. "He must've done something to Crichton."  
"Calm down!" Jothee said. "We escaped from Scorpius! He couldn't possibly..."  
"But he could!" Chiana shouted at him. "You don't know Scorpius!"  
"But you do?"  
Jothee's question hit Chiana kind of hard.  
"Yeah," she said as she wandered through the shadows of Moya.

Chiana has never met Scorpius, and had only seen him once, on the Royal Planet.  
At first she had only seen glimpses of the Scarran-half-breed as he was also a guest at Crichton's wedding with the Princess, but later Chiana saw Scorpius as he made a pact with D'Argo to save her from a Scarran who had tied her up and had her dangling above a pool of boiling acid.  
That wasn't a happy memory.  
But she knew Scorpius only did that to get to Crichton, and the knowledge he possessed.  
She knew this as she remembered Scorpius's Gammak Base, and that horrible time she had spent in a asteroid-field, being hunted down by Scorpius and his Command Carrier he stole from Crais to find Crichton. At all costs.  
Chiana saw Scorpius as this ruthless businessman, who takes whatever he needs and is willing to make compromises in order to get whatever he wants.  
In this case Crichton.

"He has Crichton!"Jothee said. "Crichton is possessed by him! By the chip, or whatever he has in his mind!"  
Jothee sighed as he came to a conclusion Chiana wouldn't like.  
"We have to kill him." He whispered.  
"What!" Chiana walked away from Jothee.  
"I am not going to kill Crichton!" she shouted at him.  
"Then I will!" Jothee said.  
"You're not going to kill him either!"  
"I will not go into slavery again! Not by Crichton, not by Scorpius, not by anyone! And if I have to kill Crichton to regain my freedom, then so be it."  
"Crichton is the one who sacrificed his life to get you you're freedom!" Chiana shouted at him. "And now you're,...you're going to kill him? Is that how you are going to thank him for what he's done?"  
Chiana had tears in her eyes.  
"You are not going to kill Crichton. You know why? Because he's the bravest man you have ever seen. He's the most honourable, the sexiest and the most gentlest man there is!"  
"Crichton is dead, Chiana!" Jothee said.  
"No he isn't! Crichton would never..."  
"Would never hurt his friends? Hurt the one he loves? He has already done that hasn't he?"  
Chiana didn't know what to say.  
"Crichton will kill us all."Jothee said. "Is that what you want?"  
He put his hands on his face, wiping away her tears.

Harvey suddenly stepped from the shadows with two pulsepistols aimed for the both of them.  
"Crichton..." Chiana said.  
"I was right, wasn"t I?" Jothee said, but Harvey shook his head.  
"No, Jothee." Harvey said. "You're absolutely wrong."  
He fired on the both of them.  
Their bodies fell on the ground with a soft bang.  
He only stunned them of course, firing the pulsepistols at the lowest level, and afterwards pulling the body's off of the floor and carrying them away.  
"I'm going to capture you." Harvey said to his unconscious adversaries. "One at a time."

"What was that?"  
D'Argo and Zhaan rushed through the corridors of Moya to the place where they heard the shots coming from.  
"It must've come from here." D'Argo said as he smelled the corridors for familiar smells.  
He used his nose, as he couldn't see in the darkness.  
"Chiana?" Zhaan shouted. "Rygel? Jothee? Stark?"  
Ever since the systems-overload Stark had disappeared and neither Zhaan or D'Argo know where he went.  
"Where are they?" Zhaan asked D'Argo, but he knew as little as she did.   
Suddenly the corridor lit up and firebolts were shooting through the air.  
"We're being shot at!"  
In the short flashes of Crichton's pulsepistols they saw Crichton firing at them, and D'Argo fired back.  
"Run!"D'Argo said to Zhaan as he shot into the darkness, not knowing where his assailant was.  
"I won't!"Zhaan shouted.  
Crichton fired again and D'Argo fired at the point where the shots came from, but hit nothing.  
"Just do it!" the angry Luxan shouted back. "Before you get hurt!"  
D'Argo heard Zhaan's footsteps as she ran away from battle.  
She had no weapons, and she couldn't see, so it was a good choice to retreat from battle.  
She heard the shots being fired, but could not hear if D'Argo had overcome Crichton or had been shot.  
Suddenly she heard a familiar voice through the walls of Moya.

D'Argo's survival-instinct took over, as he shot at everything that moved.  
His rage was growing inside of him, as a balloon ready to burst.  
But he didn't stop firing until the power of his Qualta Blade was too low.  
The Blade jammed as it couldn't produce anymore energy-bolts to fire.  
When the firing stopped, D'Argo became scared. Even if it was brief.  
He gazed into the darkness, but still couldn't see a thing.  
But as his rage began to grow again, he grabbed his Qualta Blade by the handle and rushed into the corridor, hacking away at everything that seemed to be hostile.  
As he yelled an old battle-cry, he realised that his back hurt, and that he was shot in the back.  
The pain spread through his body, and the last thing he saw before he blacked out, was his face getting closer and closer to the floor.


	9. A Little bit Tied Up

"Rygel?" Zhaan gasped.  
Zhaan saw the small Hynerian appear from the shadows and was glad to see the little Dominar.  
After the systems overload, he hid into the access shafts of Moya, knowing that he would be safe there.  
"Are you all right?" he asked.  
Zhaan hadn't even noticed she was injured.  
She looked surprised at her wounded arm.  
"I'm all right." she said, "A few fibres are torn, but I'll live."  
"Good, now let's head to the transport-pods and get the frell out of here."  
As the Dominar zoomed away, Zhaan stopped him by grabbing the back his tiny throne.  
"Rygel!" she said. She kept her voice down, in case Crichton was still nearby.  
"We cannot abandon our shipmates."  
"You can't."Rygel answerd. "But I can."  
He tried to get away again, but Zhaan didn't let go.  
"If you leave now, you wouldn't just abandon the others,..."Zhaan said. "...you would abandon Moya as well."  
Rygel seemed startled as he realised she was right.  
Moya had been his home for over 300 cycles now.  
He couldn't leave her in a time were she needs all the help she can get.  
Rygel seemed not convinced by this argument, but in the end agreed to help.  
"All right." Rygel said disappointed, but just. "Moya needs our help."  
"And Pilot also." Zhaan said.  
Rygel understood what Zhaan was trying to say.  
"Pilot is the only one who can get control over Moya back." Zhaan resumed.  
"Can you get to him?" the Delvian priestess asked gently.  
Rygel seemed scared at first, but raised his head with dignity as he set off to save the day.  
"He never ceases to amaze me." Zhaan said as she watched the old, wise, but cowardly Hynerian disappear into the access shafts of Moya.

"...rise and shine. Wake up and feel the headache!"  
The first thing D'Argo heard as he woke up from being unconscious was Crichton's voice as he slapped him awake.  
Immediately he noticed the rope around his waist, and his inability to move.  
He hissed as he realised he was imprisoned, and that he couldn't do nothing about it.  
"Are you comfortable?" Harvey asked.  
"Frell you." a voice behind him suddenly said.  
D'Argo looked around and saw it was Aeryn.  
She was also tied up, and a little drop of blood had slowly made it's way from her forehead to her eyebrow.  
"Are you okay?" D'Argo asked.  
"I'm fine." Aeryn said. "Don't worry about me."  
It wasn't very convincing.  
"My dearest of dearest hostages." Harvey continued.  
Harvey looked down upon his captured foes.  
"I am not stupid enough to imprison you on Command. That would be too risky, as if one you escaped, he would regain control of Moya the instant he has loosened his bonds.  
Therefore I've taken you here. A much better place to leave prisoners, with a beautiful view."  
He pointed at the window that looked out onto the stars, but the prisoners never took their eye off of Harvey.  
This time D'Argo looked right through him.  
He saw immediately that they weren't dealing with an insane Crichton or alien.  
This was Scorpius.  
But something wasn't right.  
He was enjoying himself too much.  
So enjoyed himself so much that he couldn't be Scorpius anymore.  
He is different. 

"Cut me the frell loose you frelling drannit!"  
It was Chiana who was the next person to shout at the possessed Crichton.  
She was also tied up, next to Jothee, in the corner.  
"Ah, Chiana, the grey girl! If only you're brother could hear you now." Harvey said.  
Chiana was astonished, and furious.  
How could he say something like that, in particular against Chiana, who hasn't seen her brother in ages?  
"Frell you." Chiana replied, but Harvey didn't listen to her anymore.  
"Ah,..." Harvey said, as Jothee woke up beside Chiana.  
"What a sight. The two lovebirds are waking up, side by side."  
As he said it, he slowly looked upon D'Argo from the corner of his eye, and smiled.  
D'Argo almost exploded with anger, but refused to give in into Harvey's sick game.  
Because none of them responded to Harvey's pestering, he turned to other matters.  
"Three more shipmates to go." he said. "Wouldn't want them to spoil our fun, now do we?"  
The crew didn't say anything.  
As he left, he closed all doors leading to the room where they were imprisoned.  
As the lights faded out, the bright light of the stars, that were visible through the window, shined even brighter on their faces, and made them feel even more fragile.  
They wondered if they were ever going to get out of this alive.  
They always had before, but this time it was different.  
This time, it was about Crichton.

"Where the frell am I?"  
The small Hynerian Dominar was lost in the pitch black darkness of Moya's access shafts.  
Rygel could've easily found his way around the access shafts, but because all the lights were gone, he was as blind as a bat.  
"Pilot's den,..." he mumbled by himself, "…second passageway to the right, third to the left, and then what?"  
He seemed lost, until he stumbled upon a broken DRD.  
"It can't be far now." Rygel said to himself.  
He was right.  
He found Pilot's Den and slowly zoomed inside.  
A pale light was still visible in the centre, where Pilot was, but it was too dark to see anything else.  
"Pilot?" Rygel whispered. "Pilot?"  
He whispered his name another two times, and after the last one, Rygel heard a soft moaning coming from the centre.  
Pilot was still alive.  
"Pilot, are you all right?"  
The pale lights seemed to become brighter as Pilot woke up from his painful nightmare.  
He was shocked as he discovered it wasn't a dream.  
"What happened?" he asked.  
His voice was soft and low.  
"Crichton has taken over Moya." Rygel answered.  
Pilot wasn't even listening.  
"The pain..."Pilot muttered. "It was terrible. But it's gone...  
I am numb. I can't sense anything. I can't sense Moya! Where is she! I can't..."  
Pilot became hysterical.  
The lights that first seemed pale shined like a supernova and blinded Rygel.  
"Pilot!" he shouted. Rygel tried to calm him down, but Pilot wouldn't listen.  
But his hysteria wouldn't last long.  
Pilot collapsed under the stress he was under and the pain made him lose consciousness again.  
"Frell!" Rygel said to himself. "What am I going to do now?"  
Rygel was hoping that Pilot could help restore Moya's systems and power, but instead Rygel was back to scratch.  
"Zhaan is waiting for me." He mumbled to himself. "What if she gets captured also?  
Then I would definitely be alone... PILOT!"  
He zoomed over Pilot's console and under his arms and slammed into Pilot with his head until he woke the blue giant up again.  
"Pilot," Rygel said. "I want you to calm down."  
Pilot gazed empty and sleepy into Rygel's eyes.  
"I am here with you."Pilot continued. "And I'm doing everything I can to help you. To help Moya."  
Pilot heard his calming words.  
"I am sure Moya would be grateful."  
"Pilot, can you open the doors?"  
"What?" Pilot said vaguely.  
"Can you open all the doors?"  
"I don't know." Pilot answered.  
"It seems everything is malfunctioning."  
He sighed.  
"But I shall try nonetheless."  
"Thank you, Pilot."

For a moment it seemed that the lights were coming back, but the lights faded away quicker then they had lit up.  
Zhaan already had been very patient.  
She wondered if Rygel was captured or killed. Or if he had run off, like he said he would.  
Zhaan shook her head.  
Rygel wouldn't.  
He would not betray Moya.  
He may be a gluttonous, greedy, coward, but he's not a traitor.  
Although he did almost sell Moya's crew to Crais,...  
Zhaan was suddenly beginning to doubt Rygel's good intentions.  
She muttered a Delvian prayer to try and calm herself.  
It didn't work.

"I can't,...I can't do anything!" Pilot said.  
His pain grew again, but Rygel slammed him again until sanity was restored.  
"Thank you, Rygel." he whispered afterwards.  
"Now tell me what you're talking about Pilot." Rygel asked him after he calmed down. "Is Moya allright?"  
"I can still feel her presence," Pilot explained. "...but my ability to focus on her presence is gone."  
"Can she sense you?" Rygel asked.  
"Yes, " Pilot answered. "I think so. She's trying to contact me, but I can't hear what she's saying."  
"How can I help, Pilot?"  
"The neural-cluster."he said. "Crichton must've rerouted every system to command.  
And he's controlling Moya from there. He's blocked my controls, so I can't do anything about it."  
"How can I restore you're control?" Rygel asked.  
"Find the cable that's connected to the main system, and restore it's connection to my nerve-system."  
Rygel zoomed slowly underneath Pilot into the neural-cluster.  
He still couldn't see a thing.  
"I can't see, Pilot. Can you do anything about the light?"  
"I can't do anything without the main systems backup, but I'll try.  
Fortunately, the lights operate on a separate system, so there is a chance I can get it to work."  
Rygel was getting frustrated.  
How was he supposed to do this without light?  
"Pilot?"  
"Still working on it."  
"Frelling cold." Rygel muttered to himself.

"I did it!" Pilot shouted.  
Suddenly all the lights on Moya were shining like a sun.  
Rygel was blinded.  
D'Argo, Aeryn, Chiana and Jothee quickly covered their eyes.  
Zhaan was enjoying herself.  
Harvey was surprised.  
Stark was furious.

As Pilot slowly dimmed the light and his eyes began to get used to the light, Rygel saw the cable Pilot was talking about.  
But he also saw the damage inflicted by Harvey.  
"He knew exactly what to do." Rygel said, as he observed the ripped cables and junctions and lay his hand on the cable he was supposed to deal with.  
"What are all these DRD's doing here, Pilot?" Rygel asked, as he noticed that over twenty DRD's were looking at him.  
"I don't know." Pilot said. "I didn't send them there."  
"You didn't send them here? But..."  
His sentence was cut off as all the DRD's fired upon the floating Dominar.  
The blasts missed him, but did hit his levitating throne.  
The machine plunged onto the floor and Rygel was forced to jump out and hide behind the neural cluster cables.  
The lights began to shimmer again, as the DRD's blasts hit the cables, but it didn't do much damage.  
"Can you see the cable, Rygel?" Pilot asked.  
Rygel looked up.  
The cable was located one metra above his head.  
"I can't reach it!"  
Because of the DRD blasts, Rygel's answer didn't reach Pilot's ears.  
"I can't hear you Rygel."  
The DRD's began to surround the Dominar, as he climbed upon the cables in an desperate attempt to get the job done.  
"Rygel?"  
"I'm a little bit tied up at the moment, Pilot!"

Harvey had sabotaged those DRD's to guard Moya's neural cluster from any attempt to repair it.  
If someone would repair it, Harvey would lose his advantage over Moya's crew, and the control over Moya...  
He wasn't going to let that happen, now would he?


	10. It Won't be Long Now

A small light appeared in the northern sky.  
First it vanished behind some dark clouds, but it swiftly reappeared larger then before, swooping down like a bird, as it requested to land.  
They were being expected.

Yo'brakh was a planet covered with grey mountains and shining blue lakes.  
A large facility was visible in the largest valley between the grey mountains.  
This was a prison facility, ran by the Peacekeepers.  
It was massive, and was covered in tiles and towers.  
The architectional style looked more like gothic then the traditional Peacekeeper style.  
The building was grey, just like the mountains surrounding it.  
It almost wasn't recognisable if they didn't know about it's presence.

The strangest thing was that the building didn't seem to have any windows...

The Marauder landed on a stretch of land next to the building, right next to the pier which lead to the nearby lake.  
As it landed, smoke came out of it's engines and a door opened.  
Five Peacekeeper soldiers came storming out, followed by a Peacekeeper officer.  
As the door closed, they saw four men coming out of the main facility to greet them.  
"You are early!" one of them said.  
His red uniform reflected the morning-light, and gave his superior rank away to the arriving guests.  
"We weren't expecting you for hours!" the officer added.  
"We were lucky." Lieutenant Bracca said.  
"But I'm not here to talk about our voyage. Have you done what I asked of you?"  
"I have indeed." the officer said to Lieutenant Bracca as he accompanied him to the facility.  
"We are scanning the entire system for any signs of Leviathan vessels."  
"And?" Bracca asked.  
His voice was cold.  
"No sign yet, sir." the officer said.  
The soldiers followed them with their guns drawn.  
"Are you sure?" Luitenant Bracca asked.  
"Well, yes...of course..." the officer answered.  
"Are you sure?"

The only thing they had to do to capture Crichton, is find Moya.  
If Scorpius was right, she would come straight to their position.  
But if they would miss her, they would miss Crichton.  
Scorpius would be furious if they didn't capture him now, as Crichton was falling right into their lap.  
The only thing Bracca has to do is catch him.

"I shall lead you to our control centre." The officer said, as they entered the structure.  
"As you should." Bracca said to him.  
The inside of the facility was entirely marble, with black and white stones covering the floor and red statues of legendary Peacekeeper warriors on every corner.  
"What kind of facility is this?" Bracca asked.  
"A mental institution." the officer replied.  
"This is a place where we keep the mentally ill criminals of hundreds of different planets and civilisations from Peacekeeper territory."

As they entered the control centre, someone approached the officer with a desperate, but enthusiastic report.  
"We have contact, sir!" he said, and the officer followed him to his console.  
His screen displayed a round sensor-board, which indicated if anything had entered the sector.  
A small blip was visible at the lower side of the board.  
"Is it a Leviathan?" Bracca asked.  
He was agitated, and he felt something crawling down the back of his neck.  
The private looked around as he had discovered it's identity.  
"It is, sir."

FLASH.

John Robert Crichton Jr. was sitting in a small boat in a lake surrounded by trees.  
"This is where my dad and I just to go fishing together." John said as he noticed the location and the fishing rod in his hands.  
"I miss Earth."  
Harvey was in the back of the boat, playing a harmonica.  
"I'm beginning to like you're Earth, John." he said.  
John looked around.  
He covered his eyes as the sun blinded his eyes and he looked at his enemy.  
"Well, too bad. Earth doesn't like you."  
"Oh, how I like you're witty remarks." Harvey said.  
"I really do. Like what you said on the Gammak Base, as Crais and I approached you in you're cell. 'Fetch the comfy chair' you said."  
Harvey laughed hysterical and hit his chest like a drum.  
"At first, I didn't know what the frell you were talking about, But now I know."  
"Do you?"  
"Ah, yes. It was a joke-in-a-joke. A reference to Monty Python. Very good."  
He laughed again and afterwards, he played his harmonica again.  
The water was quiet, and a chilling wind was blowing through their hair.  
"I like it that you stopped resisting me, John. Maybe now we can finally work together.  
As partners instead of enemies."  
"Partners? That's a strange choice of words, considered the fact that I'm forced to work with you. Besides, I haven't stopped resisting."  
"You haven't?" Harvey asked surprised.  
Suddenly, John's fishing rod shook around.  
Something in the water fought bravely against a force much more powerful then itself.  
"You got something!" Harvey shouted and jumped to John's side of the boat.  
He looked over John's shoulder to the fish he was trying to reel in.  
"Go away, Harv." John said. "You're scaring the fish away."

FLASH.

D'Argo looked away in anger.  
He refused to look at them.  
"D'Argo." Aeryn said. "This is not a time to hold a grudge. We have to work together on this."  
He hissed.

With one swift movement, D'Argo untied himself and found himself free to move.  
He quickly untied his feet and threw the ropes in the corner.  
He untied Aeryn's hands and feet, but as he turned to Chiana and Jothee, the pain came back.  
"D'Argo..."Aeryn said again. "Untie them."  
D'Argo refused.  
Chiana and Jothee looked at him.  
"Untie us!" Chiana said.  
D'Argo looked at them, but did nothing.

"Pilot!"  
Rygel screamed his lungs out, as the DRD's opened fire on him again.  
"Pilot! Open the doors!" he shouted.  
He couldn't get out.  
He couldn't climb, he couldn't get down, he was trapped: hanging on the cables in the centre of the neural cluster.  
The DRD's aimed at the Hynerian as they moved closer, and patiently waited to fire.  
Rygel desperately tried to avoid the many DRD's. If they saw him, if they fired,...then he was dead!  
Rygel was sweating as he stretched his arm towards the cable, but he couldn't reach it.  
"Open the door!"he shouted again. "Get me out of here!"  
If the door could be opened, he could escape this death-trap.  
"I have no control, unless you can repair the damaged cable."  
"Frell you, Pilot!"  
He yelled at him, because he didn't have anyone else to blame for this.  
He stretched his arms out again.  
He could almost touch it.  
Drops of sweat reached his eyebrows.  
"I have it!"  
Rygel closed his fingers around the cable and yanked it out of it's re-routed system.  
Rygel lost his balance and fell to the ground, although he didn't let the cable out of his hands.  
"What now, Pilot?"  
The DRD's started shooting again, as they saw him lying on the ground.  
"Put it in it's original setting!" Pilot shouted at the Hynerian.  
Rygel evaded the pulse-blasts and swiftly climbed the next pillar of cables.  
"I'm too old for this!" he sighed.  
One microt later, Pilot could feel Moya again. He could feel everything again.  
He saw Crichton's modifications and made sure that everything was restored to normal.  
All the doors opened and all DRD's stopped firing.  
"Thank you, Pilot." Rygel said, pleased to be out of danger.  
"No, Dominar." Pilot replied. "Thank you."

D'Argo was surprised to see the doors open, but he didn't question it and used it to get away from Chiana and Jothee.  
Aeryn quickly untied Chiana and Jothee.  
"It's probably best for you two to stay away from him for now." Aeryn said to them. "You go find Zhaan, Stark and Rygel. D'Argo and I will take down Crichton."  
"How are you going to do that?"  
"We'll start by taking Command back."

"Zhaan? D'Argo? Anyone?"  
Pilot had restored the comms to anyone and spoke to the crew.  
Zhaan was glad to hear his voice.  
"Pilot!" she said. "Are you all right?"  
"I am recovering." Pilot said. "And so is Moya."  
Zhaan was glad to hear Moya was doing fine.

"D'Argo!" Aeryn shouted. "Where are you going!"  
"To Command."he said.  
"You read my mind."

FLASH.

"You're losing."  
Harvey sat in the Aurora-chair, watching television in an art-gallery.  
The television showed images from nuclear bomb explosions and English paratroopers flying through the air.  
"Face it, Harv." John said, as he turned the chair around with a twist.  
"It's over."  
"But this is only the first stage of my plan, John." Harvey said and smiled.  
"You're plan sucks."  
"I concur it had it's setbacks, but I am still winning."  
As Harvey changed the channels with a remote-control, the television showed football-matches, baseball-games and a bugs bunny cartoon.  
"I don't lose, Crichton." Harvey said to him, suddenly agressive.  
"For everything there is a first time." John replied. "D'Argo and the others will kick you're ass, as they will throw you in the brig and take me to a doctor, which will remove the chip and with it you're fantastic personality...!"  
In the background, Bugs Bunny ate his carrot and made Elmer Fudd bite the dust.  
Again.

Harvey smiled.  
As John looked at him, he suddenly realised something.  
Harvey had something up his sleeve.  
"You have a backup-plan." John said. "You don't care about them taking back the ship!"  
John saw as Harvey's eyes began to shimmer.  
"What did you do?" John asked afraid.  
"No, John." Harvey said. "I'm not telling you yet. That would spoil the surprise."  
"TELL ME NOW!" John shouted in his face.  
John tried to grab Harvey out of his chair, but the chair vanished. As did the room where they were standing.  
Suddenly something flashed before his eyes.  
Something Harvey did not want him to see, but gave away unintentionally.  
"Aeryn's the key." A little voice said in Crichton's mind.  
But what could the imprisoned Crichton do with this knowledge?

"It won't be long now." Harvey said.  
John looked everywhere but couldn't see him.  
"As you may see, Moya's crew is still not aware that they are travelling into Peacekeeper territory, and if they finally do, it will be too late.  
Moya will be escorted to her new confinement, along with you're friends."

Harvey's plan was perfect.  
He manipulated Talyn's message and the co-ordinates he sent, and disrupted Moya's crew, so that they were unable to change their journey and destination.  
Scorpius's Command Carrier in the area of Yo'brakh should surely see them coming.  
Before they even realise it, Moya would be crawling with Peacekeeper soldiers and Crichton would soon be in the hands of Scorpius.

All he had to do now was make sure Moya couldn't Starburst.


	11. Call me Harvey

"Careful." Aeryn said, as she and D'Argo entered Command. "There could be booby-traps."  
"Agreed." D'Argo answered.  
They had seen what Harvey could do, and therefore they tried to be prepared for anything.  
They split up, moving to either side of the room.

The stars were beautiful, and in the bright distance they could see a planet ahead.  
"Any sign of Crichton?" Zhaan asked over the comms.  
She met with Chiana and Jothee in the corridor and equipped herself with a weapon.  
"Not yet, Zhaan." D'Argo answered.  
"But if any of you do find him," Aeryn continued. "Do not hesitate to pull the trigger."  
Zhaan closed her eyes and pictured a unbearable moment in her head.  
The moment were she kills Crichton.  
She opened her eyes and hoped that moment would never come.

"He's not here." Aeryn concluded as she and D'Argo had searched both Command and the corridors leading there.  
"We should close all doors at places where we have already searched." Aeryn said.  
"This will make both our search-area, and Crichton's way of escape smaller."  
"Ingenious," D'Argo said.  
As he looked upon her a second time, he noticed how pale she was.  
She looked very tired. Sick even.  
"You should see if Zhaan can take a look at you." D'Argo said.  
"I'm fine, D'Argo." Aeryn said. "Don't worry about it."  
She walked off.  
As D'Argo followed her and closed the door, a voice was heard over the comms.  
"He's here! HE'S HERE!"  
"Rygel?" D'Argo asked, recognising the voice.  
The small Hynerian was silent.  
"Rygel, where are you!"D'Argo shouted.

"Commander Crichton." Pilot said as he watched Harvey walk towards him.

Aeryn and D'Argo rushed down the corridor, only to find both Zhaan and Chiana running towards them in a similar state of being.  
"Rygel is in Pilot's Den!"Zhaan shouted.  
"Where's Jothee?" D'Argo and Aeryn asked her.

They ran as quickly as they could, fearing that this hellish situation in which they were finally coming out, was going to start all over again.  
"Jothee stayed behind," Chiana said. "To protect Pilot."

"Not so fast, Crichton." Jothee said, appearing from the shadows.  
His pulse-rifle was pointed at his face.  
Harvey smiled.  
"Hello boy." He said. "Haven't you got any better things to do? Like...sleeping with you're father's girlfriend?"  
"Shut up!" Jothee shouted.  
"What kind of a son are you?" Harvey said, smiling and taunting him.  
Harvey walked to Pilot, ignoring the Luxan half-breed and staring at a semi-scared Pilot.  
Jothee shot right before his feet.  
"If you take one more step, I will kill you!" he said.  
Harvey smiled as he played with his prey.  
"You really think you can threaten me, little boy?"  
Harvey turned around.  
"Yes."  
Jothee tightened his grip around his rifle.  
"You really have no idea who you are dealing with, don't you?" Harvey said.

"Jothee, can you hear me!"  
D'Argo, Aeryn, Zhaan and Chiana all rushed to Pilot's Den, hoping that Jothee wasn't harmed in any way.

"You think you are Scorpius." Jothee said. "But you are merely a implanted neuro-chip in John Crichton's mind."  
"No," Harvey said. "I am a lot more."  
Harvey turned around and walked towards Jothee.  
"I am both Scorpius as John Crichton." He said. "I have both their memories and knowledge, and share their dreams and passions as if they were my own.  
But I have my own mission and purpose, which I will not hesitate to fulfil."  
Jothee would have already shot his rifle, but he hesitated.  
Harvey smelled his fear, and he liked it.

"Jothee?"Chiana shouted.  
"JOTHEE!" D'Argo shouted.  
The problems between the both of them dissipated as they together realised they could lose a loved one.  
With guns drawn, the crew burst into Pilot's Den, only to find a remarkable sight.  
Jothee walked towards them as they entered, with the same look on his face as the others.  
"I surrender." Harvey said as he put his hands in the air.

"Was that it?" they thought.  
"Was it over? Was it that easy? It couldn't be."  
Aeryn aimed for right between his eyes.  
"It must be a trick!" she said and looked at his demonic expression.  
"I must say officer Sun, that it isn't." Harvey said to her. "I surrender! Lock me in the brig! Confine me to my quarters! It's over and finished. As you said yourself D'Argo; my command will not last long, and it hasn't."  
Harvey went down upon his knees and put his hands in front of him, as though he was waiting to be handcuffed.  
"It's gotta be a trick..." Chiana said. "It must be. There has to be a catch."  
"Perhaps." D'Argo said, "But I'm not letting my guard down."  
He grabbed Harvey off of the floor and tied his arms onto his back with the rope Harvey used to tied up them.  
"This way, he can't do us no harm, no matter what he has up his sleeve." D'Argo said.  
"But I don't have any sleeves." Harvey interrupted.  
"You know what I mean, John."  
"Please,...call me Harvey."

They escorted him to the brig.  
All of them.  
They weren't going to make any mistakes this time.  
After they locked him up, the crew decided that they would each take turns to guard his cell.  
It was D'Argo who was going to have the first watch.  
As he sat down on the floor next to Harvey's cell, a demonic voice seemed to laugh.  
"Why are you laughing?" D'Argo asked, but Harvey didn't answer.

FLASH.

"Are you pulling a Hannibal Lecter on me Harv?"  
"I am."Harvey said smiling. "Ingenious aren't I?"  
"No you aren't." John replied. "I've seen 'Se7en'. Twice."  
"But I'm not a religious, mad, psychotic, serial killer." Harvey said.  
"You look like one." John said to him, and looked right into his eyes.  
Harvey smiled.  
"Very funny."

FLASH.


	12. Supernova

An arn went by.  
It was mostly D'Argo who stayed behind to guard Harvey, as he wasn't keen on bumping into Chiana or Jothee.  
"I'm actually beginning to like all of you, you know." Harvey said as he laid on the floor of his cell. "It's remarkable that you have survived this long. Pursued by Crais, pursued by Scorpius, no food, no money, no allies. I respect you're unique qualities to survive. I really do."  
"Shut up!" D'Argo shouted at his prisoner.  
He jumped up and slammed with his fist against the cell-door with a fury.  
"Do you always have to talk that much?" he said.

"D'Argo..."  
Zhaan stood in the doorway, clutching a pulsepistol in her hands.  
"Pilot wants you to take a look at the long-range sensors," she said.   
"Probably yóu're doing, isn't it?" D'Argo said to Harvey.  
"What's wrong with them?"  
"DRD's are so far unsuccessful in repairing it."  
D'Argo sighed as he looked into the eyes of his prisoner.  
"I will take a look at it."  
He hesitated before leaving, noticing Harvey was staring at Zhaan in a very demonic fashion.  
"Don't worry." Zhaan said. "I will guard Crichton in you're absence."  
Harvey smiled.  
"You don't have to guard him all the time."  
"Of course not..."  
"Or are you to avoid Chiana and Jothee?"  
D'Argo looked at the Delvian priestess and said nothing.  
"They are just children, D'Argo. You shouldn't..."  
"I shouldn't what! Be angry...? They betrayed me! Both of them!"  
He hissed and turned his face away.  
He hated them both.  
He pulled out a flask from behind him and put it to his lips.  
"You don't have to..."  
"I deal with my pain in my own way! In my own time!"  
D'Argo took another sip and walked out of the brig.  
"I'll repair the sensors, as Pilot asks."  
He took a last sip and threw the flask away.  
"When you see Officer Sun, " Harvey said, as D'Argo walked away. "Tell her I said... hi!"  
D'Argo stopped for a moment, but didn't bother to turn around and walked out without saying anything to his prisoner.

"Keep that poisonous tongue of yours behind you're teeth." Zhaan said.   
"You have already harmed enough innocent souls today, and I won't let you hurt more!"  
"Oeh, I love it when you talk dirty to me..." Harvey said to her and stood up so that he could look in her blue eyes.  
Suddenly she grabbed him by his throat.  
"Moya...Pilot...D'Argo...Aeryn...they all suffer because of you!"  
"You forget.. Harvey said, as he struggled to regain his ability to breathe. "You were the one who burned Moya!"  
Zhaan threw Harvey with his head against the wall.  
"I know that this is all a trick. You would never let yourself be captured.  
You mean to kill us all, don't you?"  
She threw him against the wall again.  
"Don't you!"

Oh, he enjoyed this.  
He saw the fear in their eyes.  
The fear of not knowing you're enemy's plan, and the fear of knowing that they're fighting a friend, not an enemy.  
Killing him, means killing Crichton.

Moya was already in Peacekeeper territory.  
Harvey only had to hijack a Transport Pod and fly away to be picked up by Peacekeeper officials.  
They would recognise him as John Crichton and put him in a cell until Scorpius would get there.  
But that would be too easy.  
Now, Harvey planned that he will not have to steal a Transport Pod to get to Yo'brakh.  
Instead, Moya's crew will help him get there.  
Oh, how he enjoyed this,...

"Zhaan, please..."  
Zhaan suddenly released Crichton from her grip.  
That wasn't the voice of Harvey.  
It was Crichton.  
Begging for mercy.  
"No,"she said. "That can't be."  
She suddenly saw the pain of her crewmen in front of her, and she knew that Crichton would never do that.  
Crichton would never do that.  
"That can't be. No...Crichton is dead!"  
She lashed upon Harvey again with a murderous rage.  
As both Harvey and Crichton began to choke, her eyes turned red.  
"Crichton is dead!" she shouted.

FLASH.

The white room began to flood as gallons of blood poured down the ceiling.  
"You're plan sucks, Harv!" John shouted as he walked across the river of blood.  
Harvey stood in the middle of the chamber struggling for air, with his hands grasping his throat.  
John laughed so hard he thought his lungs were going to explode.  
"You did this, you know. You brought this upon yourself!"  
"Crichton!" Harvey gurgled as he desperately tried to talk to Crichton.  
"If I die, then so will you!"  
The sea of blood reached their knees.  
"I don't care, Harv." John said. "I'm dead already. John Crichton died a year ago, in that Aurora-chair, when Scorpius put you're chip inside my head."  
"Crichton!"  
"Besides, I'd rather die then be Scorpius's labrat."  
John walked, through the blood, towards Harvey, standing in the centre of the white room.  
"Now Scorpius can kiss his wormhole-technology goodbye!" John said, and suddenly, right there in front of them, blue words and symbols appeared into thin air.  
Wormhole-equations.  
I knew that you were holding something back from me!" Harvey tried to shout, but he failed miserably.  
The equations disappeared as quickly as they appeared.  
"These were the only wormhole-equations I know, and I shall take it with me to my grave."  
As Harvey felt his end approaching, John stared into the sky and closed his eyes.  
"Arrn..."  
John's heart leaped into his throat.  
"Aeryn..."  
"Damn," he thought, "I heard it right the first time."  
John opened his eyes, and looked upon his enemy.  
"If I die, then so will Aeryn."  
Harvey had put all his last energy into formulating his last sentences.  
"You're bluffing." John said to him.  
Harvey laughed as he read the fear in his eyes.  
The room turned darker as death got closer every second.  
"Perhap you don't fear you're own death,"Harvey said finally. "...but I know that you fear hers."  
He was right.  
Harvey was right.  
Aeryn was the key...

"What did you do to her?" Crichton asked Harvey, but he gave nothing away.  
Slowly memories of what Harvey had done crept into Crichton's mind, showing him what he had done to Aeryn.  
After Harvey had hit Aeryn unconscious, he immediately went to work.  
John could see what Harvey had done to her. He could see every detail.  
Harvey had poisoned Aeryn...

She was poisoned.

"She will die if you don't save me!"Harvey shouted with his last breaths.

John knew he was right.  
Harvey was the only one who knew how to cure Aeryn.

John closed his eyes, and poured his all of his energy in one final scream.

"What the frell...!"  
Chiana walked in on Zhaan's murderous rage, as she followed the screaming which she heard echoing down every tier.  
"ZHAAN!" Chiana shouted as she saw what was going on. "What are you doing!Zhaan!You're killing Crichton!"  
Chiana desperately tried to free Crichton from her insane grip, but she was unable to stop her.  
"Crichton is dead!" Zhaan shouted.  
Her eyes were full of tears.  
She slammed Chiana on the floor with one hand.  
Luckily Chiana found Zhaan's dropped pulsepistol and shot her.  
Crichton was free, but fell onto the ground.  
Chiana was sweating and was still shocked about what she just witnessed.  
And she had to shoot Zhaan!  
Jothee walked in on her, and saw Zhaan stunned onto the ground, and Crichton laying unconscious in the shadow of his cell.  
"Zhaan tried to kill Crichton! I had to stop her!"  
For one second she thought that Jothee wasn't going to believe her.  
"I believe you."he whispered.

Zhaan and John were both taken to infirmary.  
As they got there, Zhaan started to wake up.  
"Are you all right, Zhaan?" D'Argo asked.  
"Chiana shot me..."  
"Yes, we know that. What's the last thing you remember?"  
Zhaan spoke very softly and clear.  
"Evil..."she spoke. "...something dark...something very evil...something that couldn't be Crichton..."  
"You almost killed him, didn't you?"  
Zhaan looked beside her and saw Crichton's unconscious body lying next to her.  
She smiled as she stroke his cheeck very gently.  
"Do you not see D'Argo? Crichton is already dead. Crichton is dead! CRICHTON IS DEAD!"  
She pounded his chest, before D'Argo pulled her off of Crichton.  
"He isn't dead. No, no, he isn't...he's repressed,...he's tormented,...he's many things,...but not dead."  
Stark entered the infirmary after arns of being lost somewhere on Moya.  
"Stark? What are you...where were you?"  
Stark seemed agitated, but very calm for his normal state of being.  
Zhaan looked at him and he looked back.  
"The darkness has almost taken it's hold on Crichton," Stark spoke, "But the more Scorpius-clone pushes him away, the brighter his consciousness shines.  
Shining like a supernova in a dark sky."  
Zhaan dried her tears.  
"But there is a way to drive the darkness back."  
Chiana stepped back as Stark got closer to Crichton.  
"It's weaker now...it had to use all of it's energy to survive..."  
Suddenly he became silent.  
"So now is the time to strike!"  
Stark became outrageous and talked in a loud voice.  
"We will kick some Scorpius ass today! HAHA!"  
"Stark..." Zhaan said as she touched his hands.  
"Yes...together we are stronger..."  
D'Argo, Chiana and Jothee both watched as Stark removed his mask, exposing his true nature to them all.  
His true power and energy, which resides behind his mask.  
"Wake up John Crichton!"

"Wake up and smell the ashes..."John said to himself as he walked through the darkness, following Stark's voice.  
As he opened his eyes, John Crichton was glad to be alive again.  
Alive and kicking.


	13. Inner Demons

"Moya and I really appreciate what you have done to save us."  
"You should! I almost died back there!"  
Aeryn listened to Pilot and Rygel bicker about Rygel's near-deathexperience in Pilot's Den, while she tried to fix the damage done by Harvey in the neural-cluster.  
Several DRD's still stood silent on the ground, a remnant of Rygel's incident.  
"If you ever ask me something like that again," Rygel said,"...no matter what the consequences, I shall say 'no'! I will not let myself be killed just because..."  
As Aeryn heard this, she climbed back up to Pilot's Den and grabbed Rygel by his throat.  
"If you ever say 'no' to Pilot," she said. "I'll cut out you're mivonks!"  
"Let me go, you insane bitch!"  
Aeryn let him go.  
But not because Rygel said so.  
She grabbed her chest as she fell down the neural cluster with a bang.  
"Aeryn!" Pilot shouted.  
As Rygel looked down, he saw blood coming out of her mouth...  
"The tralk fainted and fell! Ha!"

"I'm back!"he shouted. "I'm back! In the flesh!"  
John Chrichton stretched his arms in the air and got up from his bed in the infirmary, but freaked out as he saw the others draw their guns.  
"Whoa..whoa! Easy there! Calm down! It's me!"  
"Are you?" D'Argo said.  
D'Argo hesitated, as he eagerly wished that it was him.  
"Well, my name is John Robert Chrichton jr., and I'm..."  
"How do we know if any of what you're saying is true?" Jothee said.  
"He's got a point, there John." D'Argo said calmly.  
"Tell us something we can verify." Zhaan said.  
Both were convinced of his true nature.  
"But how can we tell if it is not Harvey impersonating as him?" Jothee said and moved his gunpoint closer to Chrichton's head.  
"It could be a trick! For all we know he's going to kill us all in our sleep!"  
"Shut up, Jothee!" D'Argo shouted.  
"Father! You know I'm right!"  
"Jothee, shut up!"  
D'Argo shouted to him on purpose, and Jothee grew silent.  
"Stark?"  
D'Argo turned to Stark as hé was the one who brought John's consciousness back .  
"I have been tortured for many years by Scorpius, and I was rescued by this human that is sitting in front of me. I assure you, I know the difference between pure evil and a good friend."  
"Yeah, only this time, they're the same!" Chiana interrupted loudly and everyone turned her attention to her.  
The grey Nebari girl moved slowly towards John and she jumped upon his lap.  
Then she looked him in the eyes...  
"It's me..." John said softly.  
Tears ran down Chiana's cheeks as she embraced him with passion.  
"It's him! I know it! I can feel it!"  
"Then all hope is restored again." Zhaan said and stood up and walked away.  
She almost killed an innocent man...

As she stood in the doorway Pilot's voice was heard over the comms.  
"Zhaan! D'Argo! It's Aeryn! She's hurt!"  
"What happened?" D'Argo asked.  
John jumped up from his bed and ran past Zhaan down the corridors.  
"He's running away!" Jothee shouted. "Look!"  
"Shut up, Jothee!" Chiana said. "I know it's him! Don't you believe me?"  
Jothee hesitated.  
"Of course I do."  
"Then why are you acting like you don't?"  
Jothee wanted to answer, but couldn't.  
"It's just..."  
Chiana waited.  
"It's just what...?"  
In his frustration, Jothee threw a bottle onto the floor.  
Jothee had difficulty speaking about his emotions.  
"It's just that...I don't trust anyone. I never have and I never will."  
"Don't you trust me?" Chiana said.  
"Of course I do, but that's different."  
He sighed.  
"I've been a slave all my life. I've learned to trust no-one and rely on no-one but myself.  
It's instinct. I can't just ignore it."  
Chiana understood, as she had relied on her instincts ever since she had to live on her own in the universe, when her brother left to form the Nebari resistance.  
"But you have to trust someone!"  
As Jothee looked up, he saw his father standing in the doorway, overhearing their conversation.  
As D'Argo knew he saw him, he quickly left.  
"Of course I do."

John jumped up from his bed and ran past Zhaan down the corridors.  
He almost forgot her.  
Aeryn.  
He had hoped that this was another one of Harvey's lies, but luck wasn't on his side today.  
John ran as fast as he could.  
"Where is she?"  
He approached Pilot's Den, shocking Rygel and Pilot with his appearance.  
"Chrichton has escaped!" Rygel shouted and zoomed off, afraid of his life.  
"Where's Aeryn!"  
He asked as he approached Pilot, but he hesitated as he saw several DRD's taking aim.  
"Wait, wait, wait!" he shouted. "It's me! "  
The DRD's opened fire at Chrichton, forcing him to get back to the door.  
"Pilot!" D'Argo shouted through the comms as he tried to get to Pilot's Den before Chrichton would be dead.  
"Don't kill Chrichton!"  
"But he's here!"  
"It's all right, Pilot! He's back to normal!"  
"But for how long?" Pilot shouted back.  
"Where's Aeryn?" Chrichton shouted.  
"Down in the neural-cluster." Pilot said. "She's unconscious."  
Chrichton wanted to climb down Pilot's cables into the neural-cluster, but as he walked towards him, Pilot went berserk.  
"No!"he said. "Don't come any closer!"  
"I just need to-"  
"No!"  
"What you don't trust me?"  
"No!"  
"Well, can't blame you..."  
He turned around, trying to figure out which other ways lead to the neural-cluster.  
"D'Argo?"  
"I found her. You better get up here, she doesn't look good."  
"I would have been a lot faster if Pilot would've let me climb down into the neural-cluster."  
"Well, you can't blame him, John."  
"I didn't."

"What's the matter?"  
Stark asked her a question, but Zhaan didn't turn around.  
"Zhaan? Tell me, please."  
"I almost killed an innocent man. A good man." she said suddenly.  
Stark heard her crying.  
"I thought I had conquered my inner demons, and driven them away, but they were in me still..."  
"Inner demons...inner demons..."Stark mumbled, as he was trying to figure out what to say.  
"From the first moment I had killed my own lover, until the moment I wanted to kill another.  
And an innocent man too. I can never forgive myself."  
She walked away, as she put on her blue dress and hood, to meditate in her quarters.  
"Zhaan..."  
"Please don't follow me, Stark." she said. "I need to be alone."  
Zhaan left the corridor, but Stark wasn't alone.  
"Scorpius,...Scorpius,...Scorpius,..."  
Hís inner demons were there to keep him company.

As D'Argo lifted Aeryn off the ground, she slowly woke up.  
She was coughing up blood everywhere.  
"D'Argo..."she said. "What happened?"  
"You fell."  
"No, it's more then that."  
As Chrichton walked in, Aeryn grabbed D'Argo's Qualta Blade from his back and pointed it in his direction.  
"Wait!" D'Argo shouted. "It's John, NOT Scorpius."  
"Are you sure?"  
"It's mé, Aeryn!"  
At first, she seemed normal and steady, but suddenly she fainted again, dropping D'Argo's Blade onto the floor.  
Blood was visible on her chin.

D'Argo and Chrichton carried Aeryn to the infirmary, where they found Jothee and Chiana waiting for them.  
As Chrichton entered, they immediately pointed their guns in his direction.  
"Will you please stop pointing guns at me?"  
"Not until that chip's out of you're mind." Chiana said.  
"Fair enough." John said.  
They laid Aeryn down on the bed and called for Zhaan.  
"Zhaan!"  
"Damn, she's not answering."  
"Zhaan!"  
As Aeryn's body began to shock, Chrichton refused to wait any longer.  
"You try and help Aeryn as much as you can." he said to D'Argo.  
"I'm going to find Zhaan."  
"Hurry!"  
As he left the infirmary Chiana followed him.  
"I'm glad that you're back." she said.  
"Me too."

"Zhaan!"  
She still wouldn't answer.  
"Stark!"  
John and Chiana saw Stark moving down the corridor in front of them, and as he heard them shouting his name, he followed them.  
"She won't talk to me."he said. "She locked herself in her quarters and she won't talk to anyone."  
"Why?"  
"She's very upset. Very upset."  
"Yes, we got that part."Chiana said. "Why is she upset?"  
"She can't forgive herself for almost killing John."  
John suddenly realised that he could've died back there.  
Zhaan could've killed him if Chiana hadn't turned up.  
If she hadn't heard him screaming.

"Zhaan?"  
They stood in front of her quarters and swung open her door.  
She was sitting in the middle of her room, surrounded by blue shining crystals, and did not bother to turn around.  
Either she didn't want to, or she was so deep into her meditation that she couldn't hear them.  
"Zhaan?" John said. "Can you hear me?"  
Zhaan seemed to relax suddenly.  
"Hello John." she said.  
"Zhaan, we commed you like a dozen times, didn't you hear?"  
He approached her cautious, like he was entering a cage full of sleeping lion's.  
"I heard you." she said.  
Zhaan still didn't turn around to face him, as she sat in the middle of the floor.  
Chiana and Stark watched how John approached her back.  
"Then why didn't you answer?" John said. "We need you. Aeryn needs you. She's in infirmary, I think she's poisoned."  
"Poisoned?"  
"She's dying."

Suddenly she stood up.  
"I want to help," Zhaan said. "But I can't."  
Chiana wanted to enter the room, but John used his hand to convince her otherwise.  
"Zhaan?" he said. "She needs you're help. You're the only one who can help her. You're the only one who has some goddamn medical expertise on this ship!"  
"I want to help, John. But I can't."  
"Why not?"  
"Because of this!"  
She turned around.  
Her eyes were completely red.  
Anger had consumed her.  
She blamed herself for almost killing John.  
She blamed herself for giving in to her murderous anger, and by doing so she let herself be consumed by it, until she turned into the thing she trained herself to forget.  
The murderous woman who murdered her lover.


	14. Faded Hopes

"Hand me those supplies!" D'Argo shouted.  
"What supplies?"Jothee shouted.

Aeryn's condition became increasingly worse.  
"That box over there!"  
D'Argo pointed at the supply-reck in the corner as he desperately held Aeryn down.  
"What's happening to me, D'Argo?" Aeryn asked as she woke up in agony.  
"We don't know yet. We are helping you as much as we can."  
She fell in and out of consciousness over and over again, and her skin turned blue.  
"These?"  
Jothee grabbed packets out of the supply-rack into D'Argo's hands.  
"Yes."D'Argo said as he caught it in the air. "That's exactly what I need! A bag of Nellon! You frelnik!"  
He threw it back onto Jothee.  
" Well, isn't that good?"  
"No! Nellon is manure!"  
"How was Í supposed to know?" Jothee said as he searched for what his father asked of him.  
"Grab the box over there! Right in front of you!"  
"And what the frell is manure doing in a infirmary?" Jothee said, as he grabbed the box and gave it to his father.  
"I don't know!"  
D'Argo grabbed the box out of Jothee's hands and opened it.  
For a split second, before he looked into the box, he looked upon his son and realised that this was the first normal conversation they had since D'Argo found out about him and Chiana.  
And they talked about manure.

"What's that?" Jothee said as he looked into the box.  
The box was filled with a strange powdery substance.  
"Chlorium." D'Arg said. "It's a sedative. It might ease her pain."  
"Isn't chlorium..."  
"Yes, I know. That's why I'm only going to use as little as possible."  
He grabbed a bit of chorium between his fingers and poured it in her mouth.  
As Aeryn's painful shocks decreased, D'Argo looked surprised.  
"What is it?" Jothee said. "What!"  
"I can't believe it actually worked..."

"Leave me, John." Zhaan said.  
John was astonished and couldn't say anything.  
He thought he and Zhaan had already gone through all of this.  
Almost a year before Zhaan was tricked into sharing her mental ability to conquer her anger with another Delvian priestess, only to be betrayed when she stole that ability from Zhaan.  
She had to learn everything all over again.  
Live everything all over again.  
But thanks to John she was back to normal.  
But was she?  
As John looked upon his tormented friend, he saw he was wrong.  
"Leave, John!"  
"No, Zhaan!" John said.  
"I am you're friend. WE are you're friends. And we're going to help you."  
"You can't." Zhaan said and she turned away as if she were hideous.  
"Leave me!"  
"No!"John said and jumped in front of her.  
"Stark and I are going to save you! You know why? Because we care!"  
"Yeah, Zhaan!" Chiana said and walked in. "We care about you!"  
"More then life itself!" Stark said and Zhaan really appreciated his words.  
All their kind words.  
"We are going to save you from becoming the one thing you tried to kill."  
"I tried to kill you!"  
"No, Zhaan." John said. "It wasn't me. It was Scorpius, remember?"  
"Evil." Stark muttered.  
Zhaan turned away with strength but Chrichton grabbed her hands.  
She was forced to listen. She was forced to speak.  
"As I saw you, sitting in that cell," Zhaan began to say, "...you were but a echo of what you used to be. A shell. Inhabited by this monster.  
I saw what he was doing to Moya and the evil he spread as a plague.  
I refused to let him spread his evil any longer."  
John understood what she told him.  
"But that's not why I hate myself." she went on.  
"As I crushed his throat with my bare hands...(Chrichton swallowed)...a part of me was glad that I was killing him. Killing you. That way, I would end you're suffering..."  
Zhaan was finished.  
Chrichton looked into her red eyes.  
"I forgive you, Zhaan."  
As she sighed, her shining red eyes turned back into blue.  
"Beautiful blue." Stark said and Zhaan smiled.  
"Now, can you help me?" John said.  
"Can you help Aeryn?"  
Zhaan stood up.  
"I shall try."

As they entered the infirmary, Zhaan rushed towards the unconscious Aeryn.  
"How is she?"  
"She is sedated." D'Argo said. "And she's turned blue."  
"Fascinating." Zhaan said.  
"I'm no doctor." D'Argo answered with a smile.  
"Nor am I." Zhaan said, as she took a closer look at Aeryn's mouth.  
As Zhaan's medical tests took some time, Chiana and Jothee walked away.  
"What's the matter?" Chiana asked.  
"Nothin'" Jothee said.  
"It's D'Argo isn't it?"  
"No,"Jothee said, "No,..it isn't about him. It's about me."  
"What do you mean?"  
"I've been thinking..."  
"Thinking about what?"  
"About us!"  
He sighed.  
"D'Argo is my father, Chiana. He has put everything at risk to save me, and how do I repay him? I'm sleeping with his wife!"  
"I'm not his wife!"  
"But he wants you to be!"  
Jothee hesitated to talk further.  
Chiana feared this conversation would turn out to be another fight, just like all the other conversations they had since D'Argo found out.  
"Every time I'm around my father, I'm reminded about my betrayal...  
Everytime I'm with you,...I think about my father! Don't you see?"  
"See what?"  
Chiana hoped so badly that he wasn't going to finish what he was going to say.  
"That I have to go."  
He stopped for a microt, just to see Chiana's reaction.  
"After all of this is over, first chance I get, I'm leaving Moya."  
Chiana freaked out, but tried her best not to show it.  
"Where are you gonna go?"  
"I don't know. But as far away from here as I can get."  
"But..."  
Chiana didn't get to finish her sentence as Jothee walked away.  
But that was all right; she didn't know what to say anyway.

"How are you doing?" D'Argo said as he sat down beside John.  
"Well," John said. "The neural-clone of the man who is chasing me down the galaxy for over a year now, takes over my body and starts killing and tormenting my friends.  
Then I almost died, got shot at and there's a chance that the woman I love is going to die.  
Because of me."  
John looked at him.  
"How would you feel?"  
"Pretty disoriented." D'Argo said. "But what I meant was..."  
"Yes, I know what you meant." John said. "I haven't seen or heard of him for quite a while, so I'm hoping that his batteries must've broken down and that he died whilst in my mind."  
"Keep dreaming, John." D'Argo said as he pulled another bottle out of his pockets and took another zip.  
"Yeah, I know. The universe is against us. Nothing will ever go exactly the way you want it to go."  
"Nope." D'Argo answered wise, as he thought back upon his happy moments with Chiana.  
"You know what?" John asked.  
"What?"  
"Can I get a zip?"  
"Sure."  
He gave his bottle to Chrichton and pulled another one from his pockets as he put it against his lips and drank some more.

"It seems you were right, John." Zhaan said as she finished her tests.  
"Aeryn is indeed poisoned."  
Stark looked at him.  
"How did you know that?" he asked.  
"Because I poisoned her." John asked as he stood up.  
"Or at least my body did. I think he poisoned her when he captured her on Command."  
"Were you aware of you're actions, when Scorpius did all of these things?" D'Argo asked interested.  
Talking about Harvey was a painful subject.  
"Sometimes." Chrichton answered. "But I couldn't stop myself. It was like I was paralysed, and my body was moving on it's own."  
"Zhaan...!"Aeryn suddenly said.  
"Aeryn!"Chrichton said and he was glad to see her awake. Slowly he began to stroke her hair.  
D'Argo got up from his chair and even Stark moved a bit closer to Aeryn's bed.  
Aeryn's voice was soft and weak, and she could barely form a sentence.  
"Zhaan, what is happening to me?"  
"A poison." Zhaan answered softly.  
Aeryn was feverish and soon fell back into her coma.  
"Can you make an antidote?" Chrichton asked and looked upon Zhaan, but he didn't stop stroking Aeryn's hair.  
"I believe I can." Zhaan said.  
"But it will take at least three arns."  
"But Aeryn can't survive for another three arns!"Chrichton shouted. "Look at her!"  
"John, I'm doing the best I can." Zhaan said.  
"I recognised the toxin which he used to poison her, and it is a very difficult and complex poison. Very easy to make, but very difficult to cure. You see, it's all about the ingredients he used."  
"The ingredients..."Chrichton repeated.  
"But how did he manage to get these items?"  
"He was in the infirmary." Stark suddenly said. "About 700 microts before the blackout."  
"That explains everything."Zhaan said.  
"Do you have any idea what he could've used?"  
"Everything can be poisonous if you use it the right way." Zhaan said.  
"Or the wrong way." D'Argo said.

As Zhaan tried to find a way to create a antidote, the rest of the crew, except for Chiana who stayed to assist Zhaan, gathered at Pilot's Den.  
"How is she?"Pilot asked.  
D'Argo wanted to answer his question, but John beat him.  
"She's dying, Pilot."  
"Dying?" Rygel repeated.  
The small Hynerian Dominar seemed rather shocked.  
"Because of the fall?" he asked.  
"No, Rygel." D'Argo said. "She was poisoned."  
"Poisoned?" Pilot asked shocked.  
John didn't dare to look at him.  
He and Aeryn always had a mutual bond with each other ever since Pilot's DNA was transferred into Aeryn's body.  
"But what are we going to do?" Stark said. "What if Zhaan can't save Aeryn?"  
"If Zhaan can't save Aeryn..."John said. "Then I am a murderer."

And then it struck him.  
As he thought of the fact that it wasn't him poisoning Aeryn, but Harvey, he realised the ugly truth.  
Harvey had planned this.  
He had calculated every possible event and knew that John would face this dilemma.  
Poisoning Aeryn wasn't his prime target, but as his first plan to capture Moya's crew failed, he was free to fall back onto his second strategy.  
Aeryn.  
"Aeryn's the key." Chrichton muttered to himself.  
"What did you say John?"D'Argo asked.  
"Zhaan?" John said through the comms (John was refitted with a new working comms-device), "How is she doing?"  
"I'm doing everything I can to save her, John." she said. "I will save her John."  
She tried to seem calm and true towards Chrichton, but she failed as she seemed desperate and nervous.  
She desperately tried every medical substance or food she could find in the infirmary, but couldn't find the right combination to cure Aeryn.  
"Right..."John said.  
"She will save her, Chrichton."  
But his hopes of ever seeing Aeryn alive again faded away, and he only saw one option left...

Flash.  
He was standing in front of a door.  
He looked around. He was on Earth.  
It was the 50's and he wore a bright white salesman's jacket and sunglasses.  
He walked through a green garden towards a white house.  
The watersprinklers were sprinkling water onto the grass.  
As he knocked on the door, it opened.  
It was Scorpy.  
"Hi." John said. "I was wondering if you'd be interested in..."  
"Wormholetechnology?"Scorpius asked.  
"Please, do come in."  
John entered at his own risk.  
Flash.

"Chrichton?"  
John had turned his back upon his friends, and didn't respond to D'Argo's words.  
"Chrichton?"  
"Chrichton isn't here at the moment." A chilling voice said. "Please leave a message after the beep...BEEP!"  
Harvey turned around and showed his victorious smile to Moya's crew.  
"Hi fellas." Harvey said. "Did you miss me?"


	15. Sacrifice

"What the frell?"  
D'Argo quickly grabbed his Qualta-Blade and shoved it into Harvey's stomach.  
"There's no need for violence." Harvey said.  
"Where's John?"D'Argo shouted.

Stark looked in awe at his friend-turned-enemy.

"John has made a very noble decision."  
Harvey smiled.  
"What decision-?"  
Suddenly D'Argo understood what was happening.  
"John has sacrificed his consciousness to save Aeryn."  
"And why would you be able to cure her?"  
"Because I'm the one who poisoned her!"  
D'Argo grabbed him by the throat.  
"Easy on the throat there, Luxan, it's still sore!"  
"Shut up!"

DRD's aimed their guns upon Harvey, but waited for Pilot's signal to fire.  
"Pilot, shoot him before he kills us!" Rygel shouted to Pilot.  
"No!" D'Argo shouted to the little cowardice Hynerian.  
"He is the only one who can help Aeryn."  
"Finally someone is beginning to see reason." Harvey said and smiled as he saw his plan become reality.

"Please, please, please,..."Zhaan whispered.  
She looked through her miscroscope to see how Aeryn's poison would react to certain antibiotics as Chiana helped Aeryn through her pain.  
"You're gonna be allright." Chiana said to her and held her hand as she said it.  
"Zhaan's gonna cure you, the chip will be removed from Chrichton's mind, and Moya will be healed. Everything's gonna be allright."  
"You really think it's going to end like that?"  
"Sure it will...!"Chiana said. "Everyone likes a happy ending, no?"  
Aeryn looked in her eyes.  
"What about you and D'Argo? And Jothee?" she asked.  
Chiana hesitated before answering, as even she didn't know.  
"I don't know..." Chiana said. "D'Argo hates me, Jothee is leaving me,..."  
Chiana wanted to talk further, but then she saw the look on Aeryn's face.  
"I messed things up...but hey,...that's me...it doesn't have to be like that with you and John..."  
"Why not?"  
"Because you love each other!"  
"Don't you love D'Argo, or Jothee?"  
Chiana hesitated again.  
Aeryn suffered greatly as she lay on the bed.  
Her vital signs were displayed on a screen above her head.  
The color red dominated the picture.  
"It's complicated," Chiana said.  
Aeryn coughed up blood.  
"It hurts so much." she said in her delirious ravings.  
"I know, Aeryn. But you're going to get through this! You really are!"  
"No,..."Aeryn said. "I'm not talking about this..."  
It was difficult for her to speak.  
"Chrichton. He still lives. I know he does. Because Chrichton...  
Chrichton will never give up."  
"Chrichton is strong."  
"Chrichton….chrichton!"  
She screamed his name.  
"Chrichton!" she shouted.  
"John...!"

"I've found it!"  
Zhaan shouted a 'Eureka' in her own language over the comms.

Harvey didn't look enthusiastic.  
D'Argo looked at him and smiled.  
"It seems we won't be needing you're cure now, don't we?"  
"It seems that D'Argo could be right."  
John appeared in Harvey's view.  
He was a hallucination and walked around Rygel and D'Argo smiling at the fact that they couldn't see him.  
"It seems the tables have been turned." Harvey said.  
"Yeah, that happens a lot to me lately." John said.  
"Now I'm the invisible rabbit. Instead of you."  
John smiled as he sat down on Pilot's controls.  
"It feels kind of funny, being an 'invisible rabbit'." John explained further.  
"Don't you agree? You should know...you were one for over a year."  
Harvey smiled.  
"An invisible rabbit." John continued. "Or was it a guardian angel?  
No, guardian angels don't threaten to kill you're loved ones."  
"But invisible rabbits do?" Harvey said.

"What did you say?" D'Argo asked.  
"Nothing." Harvey said.

John jumped up.  
"You know, if Zhaan does find a cure for Aeryn, you're plan will  
If Zhaan doesn't cure Aeryn, I will take my body back. Chip or no chip."  
Harvey lost his patience.  
"When you regain control again John,...you will regret it." Harvey said furiously against the invisible John Chrichton, "it won't be long until my neuro-chip will be fully functional again and will take over you're brain, and when that time comes,...I will kill everyone on this ship!  
And I'll make sure Aeryn will die very...very slowly!"

"Frell!"  
Zhaan hit with her fist against the table.  
The cure was unsuccesful, as the toxins overcame the antibiotics after 30 microts.  
Behind her, a high pitched beep was heard.  
"Aeryn! No!"  
Her vital signs displayed no heartbeat.  
"I have failed!" Zhaan shouted over the comms as she threw her science equipment on the ground in a burst of anger. "Aeryn is dead!"  
She cried and fell to the floor onto her knees.  
Chiana was going mad, not knowing who to help.  
Zhaan who was breaking up, or Aeryn who was seconds away from death...

"Get me to the infirmary!" Harvey said to D'Argo.  
"Now!"  
D'Argo hesitated.  
He wanted Aeryn to live, but he didn't want Harvey to win.  
"If I don't do anything now, Aeryn will die!"  
D'Argo grabbed his shoulder and pushed him running towards the infirmary.  
Stark, Rygel and several DRD's followed.

As they entered they saw Chiana picking up Zhaan off the floor and the high pitched beep entered their ears.  
Harvey rushed to get several ingredients (carefully mixing them together without the crew of Moya noticing which ingredients he used) and then he poured in some water to mix them.  
"What are you doing?" Jothee said as he came in, following the commotion.  
"I'm saving a life here, boy! Don't distract me."  
D'Argo grabbed his son and pushed him into a corner of the infirmary.  
It was already to crowded in the room, as the entire crew now watched Harvey save Aeryn's life.  
Quickly after mixing the antidote he grabbed a hypodermic needle and filled it with a energy boosting drug, before injecting it into her heart.

"How "Pulp Fiction" was that!" invisible John shouted.

Aeryn's vital signs jumped like a atomic bomb.  
She lived. For now.  
Quickly Harvey grabbed his potion and poured it into her mouth.  
Aeryn swallowed.  
Her eyes were open, but she wasn't awake.  
As Harvey backed away, D'Argo checked Aeryn.  
"Was that it?"  
"Yes, it was."  
"And now what?"  
"We wait."

It took 500 microts before Aeryn seemed to recover from her toxic experience.  
It seemed like an eternity.  
"What happened?" Aeryn asked the second she was conscious again.  
"You were cured." D'Argo answered as he helped her up.  
"Did Zhaan find a cure?"  
D'Argo looked at her.  
"No,..."Harvey said. "I did."  
He sat on a chair, guarded by both Stark as Jothee who both wielded a rifle.  
"John?"  
"Not exactly."  
Harvey stood up, ignoring his guards and walking towards Aeryn.  
"Before celebrations will commence..."he said smiling, "I'd like to add that you aren't cured yet."  
D'Argo blocked him from Aeryn's view and growled.  
"The poison I've given you, is more dangerous then you can imagine.  
If cured, the poison will mix with the cure into you're intestines, where it will emerge stronger then before.  
Many have died not knowing what I've just told you."  
"You're lying!" D'Argo shouted as he grabbed his throat.  
"Easy on the throat..."  
"No, he isn't." Zhaan said. "I've heard of this poison. How did you accumulate this?"  
"It was quite easy actually...but let's not dwell on the past. Let's look onto the future!"  
"The cure..." D'Argo said.  
"Indeed." Harvey said. "I will give you the cure, in return for Chrichton."  
"No!" Aeryn shouted from her bed.  
"I would gladly die then to see John as an experiment for Scorpius's wormholeproject."  
"Would you?" Harvey said. "If you die, John's sacrifice will be meaningless.  
He's given up his body, and his life for you...and now you throw it back into his face!"  
"Yes!"  
"You must understand that you're death, will only result in Chrichton's death also."  
"You wouldn't." Aeryn said. "John's wormhole-technology means to much for you."  
"Indeed I would not kill Chrichton." Harvey said. "But you're friends might."  
Aeryn looked upon her friends.  
D'Argo, Zhaan, Chiana, Stark, Jothee and Rygel...  
All have endured many pain and stress by Harvey's doing.  
They would gladly kill him, if it means putting their pain, and John's torment, at peace.  
"Cut you're losses." Harvey said. "Don't let John's sacrifice be wasted..."  
"There's only one man who can convince me." Aeryn said.  
Harvey looked onto the ceiling and sighed.  
"Of course."

As he looked back to Aeryn, he was gone.  
John Chrichton returned briefly to the place he had to leave, but didn't want to.  
"Don't do this, Aeryn." John said. "Don't sacrifice you're life in vain."  
"But why?" Aeryn said. "Why sacrifice you're life to save mine?"  
"Because I love you." John said.  
"My life would be meaningless without you. Therefore I surrender myself to Scorpius, knowing that by doing this, I'm saving you."  
"Don't..." Aeryn said.  
"But I must..."  
"You're one stupid stubborn drannit, you know that!"  
"Yeah, I know...but that's why you love me, don't you?"  
"I do. I love you John Chrichton."  
"I love you, Aeryn Sun."  
And with those words he left, and Harvey returned.  
"Now let's get down to business, shall we?" he calmly said to Moya's crew.  
They stood there, looking at their possessed friend in awe, and painfully accepted the situation they were in.

"How can we trust you?" D'Argo said.  
"We don't want to go back to Peacekeeper imprisonment!"  
"I give you my word..." Harvey said.  
"I will only hand over Chrichton to Scorpius.  
Scorpius is only interested in Chrichton and the knowledge he possesses. He doesn't want you. You may go wherever you want to."  
The crew believed his words, but never let down their guard.  
"What must we do?" they asked.  
"Hail the nearest Peacekeeper base." Harvey answered.


	16. Numb

"I will not have this criminal in my facility! Haven't you heard the rumours lately?  
John Chrichton is a menace! A villain! I will not have him destroy my facility as he did that Shadow Depository 7 solardays ago!"  
"Commander, you must understand..."  
Bracca tried to persuade the commander of the facility of Yo´brakh to give permission for this mission.  
"No, luitenant. This is an experimental and above all secret base! I do not want..."  
"Commander! This is what Scorpius asks of you!"  
"Frell Scorpius!" the commander shouted.  
"That frelling Scarran half-breed will not be giving out orders on my base!"  
"Oh, but he will, commander." Bracca said. "His Command Carrier is on his way now..."  
Suddenly a voice was heard.  
"Commander!" a technician shouted.  
"We have intercepted a communications broadcast from the Leviathan.  
"Chrichton!" Bracca said.  
"John Chrichton to Scorpius...John Chrichton to Scorpius..."the voice said.  
"Requesting immediate extraction..."  
"Do we answer him, commander?"  
"Answer him!" Bracca said.  
Commander Moxan hesitated.  
He wasn't keen on excepting either Chrichton or Scorpius onto his base.  
"Commander Moxan!" Bracca said to him. "If you do not answer that hail, you will have to answer to Scorpius!"  
The Uncharted Territories were far away from Peacekeeper territory.  
Scorpius could do whatever he wanted without Peacekeeper Command ever knowing about it.  
And with a Command Carrier at his disposal, he was unstoppable.  
"Answer him." he said.

"John Chrichton..."a voice said.  
"This is luitenant Bracca speaking. What is you're current position?"  
Harvey smiled at hearing Bracca's voice.  
The asteroid-field circling the Yo´brakh system was frequently interrupting their sensors and communications, so they needed a accurate position to intercept them.  
"A Maurauder will be sent to transport you to the base."  
"I'm looking forward to it already." Harvey answered.

"Are we really letting him get away with this?" Rygel said.  
"We have no choice." D'Argo said. "If we don't co-operate, he won't give us the antidote."  
Harvey turned around from the console.  
"The call has been made." He said.  
"They will arrive within half an arn."

Zhaan was still in infirmary, trying to repair the damage she herself had done upon her equipment.  
If she hadn't thrown it onto the ground, she would still be able to find a cure, but now it's useless. And Aeryn helpless.  
Aeryn was still lying on her bed, but she tried to get up.  
"Don't Aeryn, you're still weak."  
"I'm feeling fine, Zhaan. I don't know what Chrichton is talking about but, I'm feeling normal again."  
She tried to walk but nearly fell. Zhaan made sure she didn't touch the ground.  
"That's how the toxin is supposed to work." Zhaan explained.  
"It lays dormant, until it's ready to spread through your system."  
"Well, I hope you're wrong." Aeryn joked.  
"Me too."

Chiana walked into Command.  
"D'Argo..."she said.  
D'Argo looked around and saw her.  
He wasn't pleased.  
"What?" he said fretful.  
"Can we talk? In private?"  
D'Argo wasn't keen on the idea to have a private conversation with the women who betrayed him by sleeping with his son, but he did anyway.  
Jothee, Rygel and Stark guarded Harvey as D'Argo left to talk with Chiana.  
"That isn't going to be a pleasant conversation." Rygel said.  
"I bet." Stark said.  
"I wonder why?" Harvey said as he looked upon Jothee.

D'Argo and Chiana walked into Pilot's Den.  
They stood in the shadow.  
"What?" D'Argo asked.  
Chiana hesitated.  
It felt like ages ago since they were this close.  
"Look, if this is going to be it, I'm going back, ´cause I really don't have time for this."  
"Wait...!" Chiana said as he walked away.  
"It's just...it's over..."  
D'Argo froze.  
"What's over?" he asked.  
"Jothee and me..."  
D'Argo didn't say anthing.  
"I just wanted you to know..."  
D'Argo walked away.

"Are you all right, Chiana?"  
Pilot witnessed their conversation.  
"Yeah, Pilot. I'm fine." Chiana said, swiftly wiping the tears from her eyes.  
"How's Moya doing?"  
Pilot sighed.  
"She's frightened."  
"Yeah, me too."  
Chiana walked towards Pilot and sat down in front of him.  
"Moya is concerned about you." Pilot said.  
Chiana laughed.  
"Is she?"  
"Yes. She wonders if you and D'Argo will ever be happy again."  
"I don't know, Pilot." Chiana said.  
"With everything that has happened...I really don't know what the future is going to be."  
"Moya understands. She feels the same way."  
Chiana sobbed.  
"Is Moya still in a lot of pain?"  
"She...doesn't feel much of it anymore. She's almost numbed."  
"I know exactly what you mean, Pilot." Chiana said.  
For a moment she wasa quiet, as she listened to the sounds of Moya.  
"And what about you, Pilot?"  
"What?"  
"How are you feeling?"  
"I'm...fine."  
He smiled briefly at the young Nebari girl, weeping in front of him.  
"Thanks for asking."  
Chiana smiled as she climbed over Pilot's consoles and gave the blue giant a hug.  
"Don't mention it, Pilot." she said.

"Are we really going to trust him?" Rygel asked D'Argo in the corridor.  
"Are we really trusting Scorpius not to turn us in?"  
"He gave us his word." D'Argo said.  
"You really think that..."  
"I have trusted Scorpius before, on the Royal Planet, and he didn't break his word.  
I trust him now to do the same."  
"You are all fahrbot!" Rygel said as he turned around and zoomed away on his repaired levitating throne.

"Hello, Stark." Harvey said.  
"Long time no see."  
Stark didn't answer him.  
"What's the matter, Stark? Cat caught you're tongue?"  
"I can speak, if that's what you mean."  
"Finally a reaction from the infamous Banik slave...  
Tell me...do you still have nightmares about me? About the chair?"  
"Always." Stark said, surprisingly calm. "The neural-clone in my head never ceases to remind me about it."  
"You have a neural clone too?" Jothee said.  
"Yes." Stark said. "Scorpius's second strategy which failed miserably."  
"Why did it fail?" Harvey asked.  
Stark smiled and in his eyes shined a psychotic light.  
"I have the ability to hide my thoughts and memories. Because of this ability, nor the Aurora-chair, nor Scorpius's neuro-chip was able to find the information it so eagerly wanted."  
"What information?" Jothee asked.

D'Argo entered.  
"They're here."

A Peacekeeper Marauder flew across the heavens towards Moya.

"Scan the vessel!" D'Argo said.  
A hologram appeared in Command, displaying the Peacekeeper Marauder and it's crew.  
"How many?" D'Argo asked.  
"Five."  
"Peacekeeper Commando's." Harvey said.  
"They are requesting to dock." Pilot said.  
"Should we allow them to dock?"

"No!" D'Argo said.  
"Tell them to wait."  
"Ka D'Argo..." Harvey said. "This is not the time to..."  
"You shall fly towards them with a Transport-Pod."  
"But..."  
"I will not allow Peacekeepers to board Moya."  
Harvey smiled.  
He respected D'Argo's strategy to keep Moya and it's crew out of danger.  
"As you wish."  
D'Argo's plan meant that Harvey would have to wear a space-suit to allow him to go from the Transport-Pod to the Peacekeeper Marauder.

"Are we really going to let him do this?" Chiana asked Zhaan.  
"Are we really allowing Chrichton to give himself to Scorpius?"  
"We have no choice." Zhaan said. "If we don't let him go, we will lose both Chrichton as Aeryn."  
"I feel fine!" Aeryn said.  
The Peacekeeper soldier in her told her she was ready for anything, but her trust in her friends told her to be careful, as the toxin could spread trough her body at any moment.

"When will you give us the antidote?" D'Argo asked.  
"When Stark and I are safely aboard the Marauder."  
"What?"  
"You heard me." Harvey said.  
Stark seemed no longer calm.  
Memories of old pain became new again as he saw himself sitting in the Aurora-Chair again.  
"No!" Stark said. "I will not go back."  
D'Argo wanted to say he was right, that Stark would never be a prisoner again.  
But he couldn't.  
"If you don't accompany me to the Marauder...then I will not tell you the ingredients of the antidote."  
D'Argo was furious, although he didn't show it.  
"Stark..." he said.  
"No!" he shouted. "Never!"  
"Stark..."  
"...I will not! Scorpius will never...never...NEVER AGAIN...torture me..."  
"Stark!"  
"No!...my side,...you're side,...my side,...YOU'RE SIDE!"  
Jothee was shocked.  
"No Stark..." Harvey said. "No deal."


	17. Insanity

"Why!" D'Argo shouted.  
"You have what you want. You have Chrichton! Now you want more?"  
"I am only doing what Scorpius wants me to do." Harvey said smiling.  
He looked upon Stark. Stark didn't look back.

D'Argo wanted to kill him.  
He wanted to kill Harvey.  
Instead he calmed down.  
He had grown accustomed to wanting to kill him. Wanting to kill John.  
A strange feeling took over, as he realised that not long ago they were friends.  
But Scorpius's second strategy had changed everything.  
"I have Aeryn's life in my hands. Remember that."  
D'Argo's rage was building up again inside.  
He shouted and hit Harvey against the wall.  
D'Argo knew what sacrifices Stark had made for the crew.  
He was the one who found D'Argo's son, he had sacrificed his own life in exchange for the others when the Plokavians had captured them.  
And now he had to make another sacrifice?  
D'Argo knew he could never ask it of him.  
He turned around to face Stark, but he wasn't there anymore.  
"Lost something have we?" Harvey said.  
"Where is Stark?" D'Argo said to his son.  
Jothee turned around, surprised that he wasn't there anymore and looked at his father.  
"He was standing right behind me!"  
"I suggest you find him, before Aeryn dies."  
D'Argo grabbed Harvey by his neck, Harvey's weak spot.  
"When Aeryn dies, so will you."  
"And so will John." Harvey added, as the angry Luxan let him go.

"Zhaan!" D'Argo shouted through the comms.  
"Yes?" she answered in the infirmary.  
"Have you seen Stark?"  
"No, what's the matter?"  
D'Argo wasn't eager to explain the matter to them, but he had to in order to find Stark.  
"He ran off, and I can't find him."  
"So what?" Aeryn said on her bed, as she recovered and listened to the conversation.  
"He's important."  
"And why's that?"  
"Harvey has changed the deal. He now wants Chrichton ánd Stark."  
"Frell." Aeryn said.  
She still didn't feel as there was anything wrong with her.  
"Zhaan?" D'Argo said.  
Zhaan hesitated, but answered.  
"I need you're help." D'Argo said.  
"You are the only one who can convince Stark to..."  
"To do what, D'Argo?" Zhaan said.  
"To give himself up to Scorpius?"  
D'Argo hesitated.  
"We don't have a choice. If we don't give him Stark, Aeryn will die."  
"I feel fine!" Aeryn shouted.

"I can't believe you." Chiana said.  
She walked into the infirmary, towards Zhaan.  
She was crying.  
"Chiana? What's the -"  
"You don't get it, do you?" Chiana said. "You are so reluctant to turn in Stark to Scorpius, but at the same time, you feel nothing when you do the same to Chrichton!"  
"That's different, Chiana." Zhaan said. "And you know it."  
"But she does have a point, Zhaan." Aeryn said.  
She sat upright in her bed.  
"Are we really just going to hand Chrichton over to Scorpius?" Chiana said even louder.  
"And now Stark too?"  
She looked over from Aeryn to Zhaan.  
"What if he changes our deal even more, like handing over Moya to the Peacekeepers, or yourselves as well..."  
Zhaan looked towards the floor.  
"For all you know he will demand that you should turn yourselves in!"  
"He wouldn't." Zhaan said. "He won't do that."  
"Would he? He has already demanded Stark to turn himself in! How can we trust him to honour the deal we made?"  
"No, we can't." Aeryn said.  
"If we don't do it, Aeryn will die." Zhaan said.  
"For all we know, he could be lying!" Chiana shouted.  
"He lied before, why would anything stop him to do the same now?"  
Aeryn didn't say a word but felt the same way.  
She didn't feel a thing from the poison that was supposed to linger in her body.  
She still did not agree with Chrichton's sacrifice.  
She still believed there would be a way to save him.  
Aeryn would gladly die for Chrichton.  
The only problem was, that Chrichton would do the same for her.  
They would both die for the sake of eachother.  
Aeryn briefly smiled at the insanity of the situation before plunging onto the ground in pain.  
"Aeryn!" Zhaan shouted as she desperately tried to help Chrichton's love from the pain.  
Harvey wasn't lying this time.  
The poison has begun spreading.

"Hello Jothee." Rygel said.  
He floated into Command, where Jothee was still guarding Harvey.  
Harvey smiled amusingly as he walked bored through the room.  
"I heard you were leaving Moya." Rygel said.  
"So what?" Jothee said, and he wondered how he knew that.  
"I know a lot." The small Hynerian Dominar said smiling.  
"I'd like to leave too, but I'm guessing you're much more desperate to leave Moya then I am."  
Jothee didn't speak nor look at him.  
Instead he kept a close eye on Harvey, who amusingly overheard the conversation.  
Rygel knew that, and therefore began whispering.  
"I have a business proposition for you, you might find interesting."  
Jothee didn't answer at first.  
"I'm listening."  
Rygel leaned towards the Luxan/Sebacean-hybrid.  
"I will give you a lot of money, if you were to,.. expose of Chrichton."  
Jothee was startled at first.  
"By accident, of course." Rygel quickly added.  
Harvey gazed upon the small Hynerian with a feeling of fear.  
"He couldn't." Harvey thought to himself.  
"Let's end this frelling situation and leave here as quick as possible."  
"If I kill him, then Aeryn will die."  
"So what? She's a Peacekeeper!"  
Jothee looked at Harvey, knowing that Rygel was right.  
He didn't care for Peacekeepers.  
"Kill him." Rygel whispered. "And then quickly grab a Transport-pod and fly to the nearest Commerce Planet. We've got money! I'll even buy you a new ship!"  
Rygel was lying obviously.  
He wasn't going to buy him a new ship.  
He would take him to the nearest Commerce Planet and leave him there.  
But he said it to convince Jothee to pull the trigger.  
"This madness is going on much too long."  
Rygel cared for both Chrichton and Aeryn, although he wouldn't say it to them.  
But in the end, survival was the only thing that mattered.  
Rygel knew that if this insanity would go on like this, they will all end up dead.  
So therefore he decided to go on the offence.  
"Pull the trigger, end the madness and let's get out of here. You will even make a couple of credits!"  
Jothee looked at Harvey.  
Jothee looked at Chrichton.  
Chrichton.  
The man that sacrificed his own life for his.  
The man that sacrificed his own life for the second time.  
For the woman he loved.  
It would seem that this man didn't care for his own life, and only for others.  
"No." Jothee said.  
"What are you saying?" Rygel said. "Just pull the trigger!"  
"No. I will not. Chrichton is a good man. I will not kill him, nor his lover."  
"Why?"  
"He gave up his life for mine. If there is any hope that Chrichton will live, then I will not abandon him."  
Rygel sighed.  
"You look like you're father." He said. "Both frelling fahrbot!"

Harvey smiled as he heard Jothee's decision.  
"Hope." He said to John in his mind.  
"Always you cling on hope."  
"Hope is the feeling that drives us." John explained to his dark adversary. "It stimulates us to do the right thing. No matter what stands in our way."  
"What do you hope for John?"  
"To see Earth again. To see my family again. To see Aeryn again. To be in control of my own body again. To have this chip out of my head! To live!"  
Chrichton suddenly felt a feeling of grief coming from Harvey.  
"I'm sorry, John." Harvey said, as he used the Command console to open Moya's docking bay, whilst Jothee and Rygel were talking.  
"You're life belongs to Scorpius now."

"The Leviathan's docking bay is opening!"  
"Should we engage?"  
Inside the Peacekeeper Marauder the five Commando's looked at the Communications screen.  
"I give you full permission to engage the Leviathan." Luitenant Meeklo Bracca said.  
His signal was briefly interrupted by disturbances in the asteroid field.  
"Don't stop at nothing to capture Chrichton. These are you're orders."  
"Understood, sir."  
The Marauder's trajectory changed as they flew towards the open hangar.


	18. Pain

"No more foreplay, teasing, playing or talking.  
It's time for action."  
Harvey smiled as he heard Pilot's voice over the comms.  
"They're here!"

"Who's here, Pilot?" D'Argo asked surprised.  
"The Peacekeepers!"  
D'Argo hissed as he grabbed his Qualta-Blade.

"What do you mean, Pilot?" Chiana said.  
"They just landed in the docking-bay!"  
"You stay here." Zhaan said to Chiana and walked away.  
"But Zhaan?"  
Aeryn coughed in her bed, her heart-rate went up.

"Who said they could land?" Rygel shouted.  
"I didn't!" Pilot said. "Someone opened the doors and they flew in!"

"Who opened the doors?" D'Argo shouted.  
"I don't know." Pilot said.  
"The command was issued on the Command Deck!"

Jothee looked at Harvey.  
"You did it."  
"Damn, you got me."

FLASH.

"I know what you are doing. And I won't let you."  
John breathed down the back of the neck of his oppressor.  
"If you leave without curing Aeryn,...I will kill you. I will kill myself."  
Harvey did not respond.  
"If Aeryn dies...the wormhole-technology will die with me."  
"I think not, my dear friend."  
Harvey turned around and grabbed his jaw.  
"My power is returning to me."  
Harvey pushed Chrichton to the ground.  
"Soon you're threats will be flawed, as you are powerless to stop me."  
He smiled.  
"My dear Chrichton...Scorpius will have his wormholes.  
And you cannot stop him."

Chrichton hesitated.  
"NO!"

FLASH.

Chrichton returned to Moya. Angry. Afraid.  
The first thing he saw as he took back control over his body was D'Argo's son, Jothee, standing in front of him with a pulse-rifle pointed at his head.  
"Jothee! Jothee!"  
His head was hurting as his return was accompanied by pain.  
"Jothee! I'm back...I'm back...that sonnuvabitch...I'm back..."  
Jothee couldn't understand his ravings, and was confused of what he was saying.  
"He only did this to buy him time...buy him time...for the Peacekeepers...Peacekeepers...he wasn't going to give the antidote...he was going to let Aeryn die..."  
Somehow he felt that Harvey wasn't going to let her die, but he didn't believe that feeling, because he knew from experience that Scorpius was a man who would do anything to get what he wants.  
Even commit murder.

"Area secure."  
The Peacekeepers had taken the hangar bay.  
"Torral, check the corridors."  
"Yes, sir."  
The Commando's were armed to the teeth and had experienced combat before.  
"No sign of the fugitives, sir."  
"Good."  
B'Kesh grabbed a scanning device from his belt and scanned the area.  
"The scanner detects one Luxan lifesign, one Delvian, one Sebacean and a Nebari, one Hynerian, one Banik, although his signal is weird, and another two strange readings the scanner can't place."  
"What do you mean two?" Rellick said.  
Rellick is their leader and superior, and in command of the mission.  
"Well," B'Kesh continued, "This one seems either Luxan or Sebacean, and the other one... unknown."  
"Chrichton." Rellick said aggressively. "Where is he?"  
"The Command Deck...wait! He's on the move."  
"Let's go, before we lose him."

"Pilot!" D'Argo said.  
Zhaan joined D'Argo as they walked down the corridors to the hangar bay.  
"Where are they?"  
"DRD's are reporting their presence on Tier 12."  
"And where's Chrichton?" Zhaan said.  
"Chrichton and Jothee have just left the Command Deck and they are..."  
"Jothee!" D'Argo shouted.  
"D'Argo!" John shouted.  
"John...?"  
"He's screwing us! He's screwing us! Scorpy is screwing us!"  
"Tell me something I don't know." D'Argo said, realising John was back.  
He was glad to hear his voice.  
"All right, I'm going to tell you something new. You know the Commando's that just landed?"  
"I'm looking at them."  
"What!"

Gunfire was heard over the comms.

"It's the Luxan!" Rellick shouted. "Shoot to kill!"  
"The Delvian's with him!"

D'Argo and Zhaan opened fire at a cross-section of the corridors.  
D'Argo was relieved he was finally able to put his anger and frustration that he has felt over the last hours to good use.  
"Are you all right, D'Argo?" Zhaan asked, as she saw the devilish look in his eyes.  
"Never better."

"Are you still listening to me?" Chrichton shouted, trying desperately to get his message through, despite the loud gunfire.  
"We are listening John." Zhaan said.  
"Harvey set this up! He screwed us!He was going to ditch Aeryn and leave with these Peacekeepers without giving her the antidote!"  
"What?" D'Argo said.  
"He let these commando's in, so that they could kidnap me and take me to Scorpius!"

D'Argo found that hard to believe.  
Scorpius was a businessman.  
He isn't the kind of man to break a promise.  
He would honour the deal.  
But Harvey isn't Scorpius, a feeling inside of D'Argo told him.  
The only thing that mattered to Harvey was Chrichton, his knowledge, and his own survival.  
Besides that and his objective, nothing is important.  
HAHAHA!  
D'Argo shouted as he gunned one of the Commando's down.

"Torral!" Rellick shouted, avoiding the Luxan's aggressive firing and the Delvian's accurate shots, "B'Kesh!"  
"Yes, sir?"  
"Go down the other passageways. Find Chrichton! We will take care of this!"  
Torral and B'Kesh understood.  
"Chrichton is all that matters. If you find him, don't think about us, go straight to the Marauder and bring him to the planet!"  
"Yes sir."  
The two Commando's left on their new assignment.

"2 Peacekeepers have separated from the main group and are currently walking down Tier 7." Pilot said.

"That will lead them straight to us." Chiana said.  
"Quick!" Aeryn said, lying on her bed. "We need weapons!"  
"Agreed."  
Chiana left and swiftly returned with two pulse-rifles and a pistol, and with lots of ammo.  
"I don't want to be used as a hostage twice this day." Aeryn said.  
Chiana smiled.  
"Me neither."

"Listen!" Chrichton said. "I've got a plan!"  
Jothee saw the lips of the insane human talking, but he couldn't hear his words.  
Suddenly Stark appeared from out of nowhere and he hit Jothee to the ground.  
"Stark! Wait!" Chrichton screamed, but was hit in the face before he could speak further.  
As he tried to get up, Stark kneeled before him, grabbing his hands and pushing him back to the floor every time he tried to get back up.  
Stark was insane.  
No, even worse, he was gone.  
He was no more.  
Insanity had taken him over.  
"Stark! No!"  
"I will not go back to the chair!" Stark shouted.  
"The pain has taken over me." Stark said.  
"And now, Scorpius, it shall take over you!"  
His fingers removed the strapping that held his mask onto his face and a light, brighter then any light ever to be seen, shined in that corridor, almost blinding Chrichton before he blanked out.

"Why is it so hot?"  
Torrall and B'Kesh turned the corner of the corridor, following Chrichton's signal which was displayed on their scanner.  
"I don't know." B'Kesh said. "Maybe there's a problem with their environmental system."  
"Maybe they're doing this on purpose, knowing what heat does to Sebaceans."  
They moved from wall to wall, carefully monitoring their surroundings, like they were trained to do.  
"What's that smell?"  
The two Peacekeeper Commando's stopped moving.  
"I know what you mean. It's revolting."  
Suddenly they couldn't breathe no more.  
It was so hot that the 'living death' was instant.  
They fell to the ground.  
Their death was painless.


	19. The Dark Path

"Chrichton!" a voice was shouting.  
A face materialised in front of him as he woke up from his headache.  
He recognised the face.  
"Jothee? What happened?"  
John's head was bursting like a balloon.  
"Stark attacked us."Jothee said. "I shot him before he could kill you."  
Jothee helped John get up.  
John saw Stark lying in front of him.  
The energy that his mask was supposed to keep inside his body was shining into the empty corridor.  
His mask lay beside him.  
John grabbed it and strapped it back upon his face.  
He looked up to his best friend's son.  
"You saved my life." John said.  
"Thanks."  
"Stark wouldn't have killed you." Jothee said.  
"Yeah, he wouldn't have killed me, but it would have hurt."  
John looked at Stark.  
"It would have hurt a lot."  
Stark didn't know he was back. That he had retaken control of his body.  
His attack was aimed for Harvey, not him.  
He was after for Scorpius.  
Stark wanted to make Scorpius suffer the way he did.  
In the chair.  
John still felt the pain himself sometimes, when he was alone.  
"Help me get Stark to the infirmary."

D'Argo shouted twice as he almost hit a second Commando with the firing of his Qualta-Blade.  
"I'm running low on energy." D'Argo said as he jumped back in his position in the safety of the corridor-wall. "How are you doing?"  
"I'm fine, thank you," Zhaan said. "But I'm almost out of ammo."  
"I have some." D'Argo said.  
"You do?"  
"Yes. "  
Zhaan shot another couple of rounds at the invaders.  
"Give it to me."  
D'Argo reached into his pockets for the ammo-cartridges and threw them into Zhaan's hands, who sat at the other end of the corridor.  
A brief burst of shots grazed the walls of Moya, but didn't reach it's goal.  
D'Argo spit onto the ground and jumped up, firing his last shots at the Peacekeepers.  
"Was that you're last shot?" Zhaan asked.  
"Yeah..."  
D'Argo grabbed a flask from his pockets and put it to his mouth.  
"Another, D'Argo?"  
"No, the same. "  
Another attack of energy-bolts interrupted their conversation briefly.  
"I thought you had thrown it away!"  
"I did. But I went back and filled it up again."

Commander Rellick looked at his team-member Aenos.  
Aenos was hit and couldn't move his right-arm.  
Both Commando's were sitting in the exact opposite direction of D'Argo and Zhaan.  
"We're running out of ammo and time." Rellick said.  
"Put you're mask on."  
"Yes, sir." Aenos said.

"You're not drunk, are you?" Zhaan said, whilst firing at the Peacekeepers.  
She said it smiling, but worried.  
"You don't have to worry about me." D'Argo said, as he took another sip.  
"I shouldn't be worried, but I am." Zhaan replied. "I keep wondering what will happen if you keep going down this dark path."  
"We're áll walking down a dark path, Zhaan." D'Argo said loud.  
"Some darker then others." Zhaan said softly, so that D'Argo couldn't hear her.  
"The only thing that matters is the fire that enlightens you're way." D'Argo continued. "And they took it away from me. Both of them."  
D'Argo fired a blast at the Peacekeepers.  
Zhaan was silent at first, but looked at him and smiled.  
"So that wasn't you're last shot." Zhaan said.  
D'Argo smiled too.  
"I guess I had one left."

Suddenly an unknown object landed on the floor in their midst.  
"A grenade!" D'Argo shouted.  
The grenade began spraying gas all over the corridor.  
"Gas!" Zhaan shouted as she put her clothing in front of her mouth.  
As D'Argo tried to get Zhaan out of the intoxicating mist, two figures ran towards them, shooting them both down.  
"We've got them, sir."

"This is stupid, Chiana!" Aeryn said.  
"We are sitting ducks here, while Zhaan and D'Argo are fighting the Peacekeepers off!  
We gotta get out there and go on the offence! Kill them before they kill us! We've got to..."  
She shouted in pain as she fell to the ground.  
"Aeryn!" Chiana shouted at her, and tried to help her up.  
"You're poisoned!" Chiana tried to tell her, but Aeryn wouldn't listen.  
She pushed Chiana away as she tried to walk.  
She was sweating as her body used all of it's energy to fight off the poison in her stomach.  
In a sudden burst of pain Aeryn fell to the ground again.  
"I will not spend the last moment of my life as a pawn! As a prisoner!"  
"Aeryn!"

"The two Peacekeepers!" Pilot shouted suddenly over the comms. "The DRD's have found them! They're dead!"

"What?" Chiana said. "How? Did D'Argo kill them?"  
"I don't think so." Pilot said.  
Aeryn stopped walking towards the exit.  
"What do you mean, Pilot?" Chiana asked.  
"They're not dead!"  
Both Aeryn and Chiana were speechless as they hadn't got the slightest clue what happened.  
"What the frell is going on Pilot?" Aeryn asked.  
She leaned against the wall so she wouldn't fall to the ground again.  
"They seemed to be in a catatonic state." Pilot explained.  
"They are not dead, but not alive either."  
"The Living Death"." Aeryn said.

Chiana jumped up in fright as she saw Aeryn suddenly be swept of her feet, struggling to breathe.  
An invisible claw seemed to hold her in mid-air.  
AAAHHH!  
Chiana's head seemed to be on fire as her mind was exposed to intolerable temperatures.  
She screamed her lungs out, and the last thing she saw was Aeryn, floating into mid-air, floating away from the infirmary...

Commander Rellick snatched the comms off of the unconscious bodies of Ka D'Argo and Pa'u Zotah Zhaan, two of the fugitives that had escaped Peacekeeper custody 2 years ago, and attached them to his uniform.  
"This is Commander Rellick speaking, Squad commander and leader of Peacekeeper Commando Unit 065."

Chrichton stood silent in the corridor towards the infirmary, listening to this unknown voice.

Rellick continued.  
"Ka D'Argo and Pa'u Zhaan are now my prisoners."  
Aenos tied D'Argo and Zhaan up in the hangar bay, close to the Marauder in which they arrived.  
"But I am not interested in these fugitives. I have only one objective:..."

Jothee looked at the human.  
He didn't seem important.  
He didn't seem exceptionally strong, or intelligent, or powerful,...  
But still it seemed that these powerful Peacekeepers would do anything to get his hands on him.

"Chrichton!" Rellick shouted.  
"Give yourself up, and we will release you're friends."

FLASH.

"Give me the antidote!" Chrichton shouted at Harvey.  
They were standing in the Shadow Depository.  
The same hallway in which he escaped Scorpius and was saved by his friends.  
Although it almost went wrong.  
"I would gladly give myself up for the lives of my friends, you know that."  
Chrichton walked down the dark hallway towards his enemy.  
Harvey still did not speak.  
"But I will not leave before Aeryn gets her cure!"  
He walked towards Harvey and didn't stop walking until he was looking straight into his eyes.  
"You have what you want. Do you really want to lose everything? You know that, if Aeryn dies, I will not co-operate. I would rather die then help the murderer of the woman I love."  
"I know that, John." Harvey finally spoke.  
"But I also know that you can't back those threats up."  
John looked even deeper into his eyes.  
He didn't blink, nor look away.  
"But I also know you're love for Aeryn." Harvey said.  
John said nothing.  
Harvey sighed with a smile on his face.  
Harvey knew that John was begging.  
He was begging for the life of Aeryn.  
He didn't say a word, but Harvey knew he was begging.  
Harvey knew it, and it felt good.  
He enjoyed this moment of power over John, and the fact that he had John at his feet.  
But somehow Harvey grew afraid.  
Afraid of John.  
If John lost Aeryn, he would lose everything.  
He would have nothing.  
And when a man has nothing to lose...  
That man would be the most dangerous man in the known universe.

"I shall give you the cure."

FLASH.

Blessed with the knowledge to save the love of his life, he stampeded towards the infirmary with the unconscious Stark in his hands, only to find an unconscious Chiana on the floor next to the bed.  
Jothee threw Stark on the bed and rushed to help Chiana.  
"Aeryn!" John shouted.  
She wasn't there.  
"AERYN!"


	20. The Tearing of the Heart

"Second mission objective confirmed."  
Aeryn woke up from a poisonous nightmare.  
The last thing she remembered was a terribly hot claw around her neck, denying her to breathe, and then all went black.  
She fainted not out of fear, but out of loss of energy.  
She's too weak, because of the poison in her body.  
The first thing she heard when she woke up, was a raw voice.  
It sounded like the eruption of a vulcano, and became louder, like it was coming closer.  
But she didn't see where it came from.  
The room where she was lying was empty.  
A low rumbling growl was heared, and smoke was visible.  
"Who are you?" Aeryn shouted.  
"Show yourself!"  
It growled again, in a way that made it sound like laughter.  
"I have successfully boarded the Leviathan without alerting the crew to my presence."  
A shimmer was visible in the air.  
Something was moving. Invisible to the naked eye.  
But that shimmer in the air convinced Aeryn that it wasn't a hallucination.  
It was real.  
And it was making some kind of log about his mission.  
"I have been successful in capturing Chrichton's mate..."  
"Mate?" Aeryn said by herself.  
Yes, Aeryn did love Chrichton, but to call her his ´mate was something different all together.  
"...and I am ready to enter the final stage of the mission."  
Aeryn had no idea what his mission was, and if she had to guess, she knew she wouldn't be far off by saying the name: John Chrichton.  
Aeryn wiped the sweat off of her forehead.  
It was hot in here.  
Hotter then ever.  
She reached for her pulse-pistol, but it had been taken away from her.  
Aeryn tried to get up, but was immediately pushed down again by an invisible hand.  
The invisible hand left a red burn on her skin, which gradually dissipated until it had faded away completely.  
She wanted to get up, but she was too weak to resist.  
The heat was unbearable.  
Aeryn could feel it's breath in her face and wondered how long it would take for the rest to find her.

"AERYN!"  
John Chrichton looked everywhere, but she was gone.  
Finally he had the cure to Aeryn's suffering, but then she's gone.  
He fell to his knees.  
Tears where in his eyes.  
"It's just not fair..."

Jothee lifted Chiana off of the ground en laid her on the second infirmary-bed next to Stark.  
As he passed him, he could hear him talking in his sleep.  
"Scorpius...Scorpius...Scorpius..."  
Chiana woke up the second her head touched the pillow.  
She was startled to see Jothee standing over her.  
"Jothee? What are you...What...Where..."  
As John heard her voice he jumped up beside her and grabbed her arm.  
"What happened?" John asked hysterical. "Where's Aeryn?"  
His eyes glew red.  
"I don't know..." Chiana said.  
She grabbed her head with one arm, still feeling the intense heat in her mind.  
"It was hot."  
John looked at her like those words were his last hope.  
"It was frelling, insane hot."  
Then suddenly she turned to Chrichton.  
"But I have felt this heat before..."

"Torral!" Rellick shouted over his communicator. "Come in, Torral!"  
"K'Besh? Answer me!"  
"They are not answering, sir." Aenos said. "We must assume they are captured or killed."  
"Yes." Rellick said, but he seemed displeased with that conclusion.  
"We shall continue our mission. Chrichton must be taken to the planet."  
He turned to the prisoners, who were tied up besides the closed entrance of the Marauder.  
"I hope you are sitting comfortably?"  
D'Argo sighed amused and looked at Zhaan who sat next to him on the floor.  
"Why does every hostage-taker ask that question, and then thinks it's funny?"  
Rellick wasn't pleased by his witty remark.  
Zhaan was still dazed by the gas they both had inhaled, and almost fell down if D'Argo hadn't grabbed her.  
"Don't worry." Rellick said and he pulled Zhaan upright.. "The effects of the gas will wear out shortly."  
As Rellick tried to help her, Zhaan backed away aggressively.  
"Don't be afraid."  
"I'm not afraid. I've been through worse situations then this."  
"And so have I." D'Argo said.  
"Then I suppose I don't have to explain the situation then."  
"We are not stupid." Zhaan said. "You want Chrichton."  
"No, we don't want Chrichton." Rellick interrupted. "But our superior does. And we're here to get him!"  
"So you're Scorpius's servants?"  
Aenos, who at first just watched the conversation between Rellick and his prisoners, suddenly grabbed his pistol and pressed it against D'Argo's forehead.  
"We are not servants!" he said. "We are Peacekeepers! We are soldiers! We are Commando's!"  
Zhaan saw Aenos pressing his pistol even further into D'Argo's forehead, and pushing D'Argo against the Marauder.  
Aenos was waiting for him to scream or bleed. But D'Argo didn't scream.  
He just looked at him, saying 'Is that the best you can do?' without even saying a word.  
He could say it with his eyes.  
"Stop it!" Rellick said, and pushed Aenos's pistol away.  
Instead, Rellick pulled out D'Argo's comms-device and spoke.

"Chrichton!" Rellick said.  
"This is you're last chance to respond!"

"This is Chrichton." Chrichton said, turning away from Chiana.

"Turn yourself in, or I will kill you're friends!"

"I'd love to turn myself in here, Relik, but..."

"My name's Rellick! Telio Rellick!"

"Yeah, whatever...but I need some time to sort things out!"

"Time?" Rellick shouted and now aimed his own gun at his prisoners.  
"You don't have time!"

Aeryn listened to the conversation, and she knew that the creature was doing the same.  
"Chrichton's back." she said to herself.  
"He'll get me out of here. He'll rescue me."  
The creature growled again. For a brief moment, Aeryn thought she saw smoke.

"You gotta give me a break here!" Chrichton shouted back at the Peacekeeper.  
"Chrichton!" Chiana said and pulled his arm to get his attention.  
"I know who did this." she said.  
"I know who's got Aeryn."  
Chrichton looked at her as if his life depended on the answer.  
"It's a Scarran."

"Pilot!" John shouted.  
"Chrichton?"  
"Give me a secure line."  
"What?"  
"Secure our conversation so that no-one else can eavesdrop on us!"  
Pilot needed a second, but secured the conversation like John asked.  
"Done. Our conversation is secure."  
"Right Pilot, tell me how many ships there are docked in Moya."  
"Is that what you want to ask me?"  
"Just tell me."  
Pilot took some time to scan Moya.  
It took longer then necessary as some movements or commands hurt him, as they were still under repairs from the systems-overload Harvey caused.  
"I've completed my scan." Pilot eventually said. "There are 7 ships docked in Moya, Commander. This includes 4 Transport-Pods, Aeryn's Prowler, you're module and the Peacekeeper Marauder."  
John looked at Chiana.  
"Are you sure?"  
Pilot didn't answer.  
"Are you sure, Pilot?"  
"Yes."  
Pilot's answer seemed his definitive answer, but John wouldn't give up.  
"Scan again. But this time, use everything you've got! If what Chiana says is right, there's got to be another vessel docked there!"  
Pilot seemed sceptic about this idea, since he's already scanned for it, but gave it a go anyway.  
"Chrichton!" he suddenly shouted.

"Scorpius!" Stark shouted as he woke up hysterical and screaming.  
He had dreamt about pain and suffering, about lonely solitude and death on a floating island in darkness.  
Jothee rushed towards his bed, only to discover Stark mumbling in his sleep, but with his eyes wide open.  
"Stark?"  
Stark looked at him, calm and hollow.  
"You shot me." Stark said.  
Jothee didn't know what to say.  
"Yeah..."

"Chrichton!"  
"Pilot?"  
"You were right!"  
John looked at Chiana again, and she looked back.  
"At first, there was a strange reading I could not explain. It was too big to be a glitch in the scan, but to small to be noticeable, but when I investigated closer, I came to the conclusion that it is indeed a ship. An invisible ship, which I wouldn't have spotted in my initial scans.  
It must've flown in while the doors where open!"  
"Opened by you!" Jothee said and John knew that he was looking at him.

"John Chrichton!" a low rumbling voice suddenly said.  
John listened to the Scarran, and feared the worst.  
"I have you're mate." The Scarran rumbled. "If the Sebaceans get their hands on you, she will die.  
If you try to escape, she will die.  
If you try to rescue her, she will die.  
If you surrender yourself to me,...then she will live."  
He ended the conversation swiftly and brutal.  
But John could hear the rumbling voice still.  
As it was tearing up his heart...

FLASH.  
"I know what you're thinking." Harvey said to John. "'Can I save them all?'"  
They were in another part of his subconscious.  
They were sitting in his personal quarters aboard Moya.  
Playing chess.  
"If I give myself up to the Peacekeepers," John summarised to himself, "...then Aeryn will be killed by the Scarran.  
If I give myself up to the Scarrans, then the Peacekeepers will kill D'Argo and Zhaan.  
If I dón't give myself up, they will all die.  
If I take too much time thinking about this, Aeryn will die of the poison."  
John rested his hands in his lap, not knowing what to do.  
But he refused to give up.  
"There is a way to save 'm all. I know there is."  
Harvey made the first move.  
"There is a way...to save Aeryn." he said. But it will be pretty messy."   
John welcomed Harvey's help at first, but immediately changed his mind.  
He was not that desperate.  
"Why should I trust you?" John said. "You were willing to let her die a microt ago!"  
"Maybe I would've let her die, maybe I wouldn't have. No-one will know now.  
But I do know, that you were willing to go to Scorpius, if it would've saved Aeryn, or you're friends, were you not?"  
"I would've given my life to them, yes."  
"Didn't I promise to save Aeryn if you were to go to Scorpius?"  
"You did, but you broke that promise by letting the Peacekeepers board Moya!"  
"You honoured the deal, and I did not." Harvey said.  
"Now I suggest to you...to let me make it up to you.  
Let me save Aeryn."  
Go with the Peacekeepers. Go to Scorpius, and I will save Aeryn."  
John was a fool to trust Harvey again, but he had no other option, if he were to save Aeryn's life.


	21. Whispering in the Dark

Aeryn's pulse-pistol was taken from her, but she wasn't unarmed.  
As a former Peacekeeper she knew that one should always take another pulse-pistol with him.  
In case you get captured and used as a hostage by a Scarran.  
Yes, a Scarran.  
Aeryn had quickly figured out who her opponent was, and she wasn't surprised at all.

Scarrans have been interested in John for quite a while now.  
They wondered what could be so special about this person, that Scorpius would chase him around the Uncharted Territories for so long.  
This person, who appeared out of nowhere seemed to be more dangerous then first speculated by the Scarran authorities.  
The first time the Scarrans encountered Chrichton was a brief and unpleasant encounter.  
Their attempt to add The Breakaway Colonies to the Scarran Empire by poisoning Princess Katralla, who was next in line to become Queen of the Breakaway Colonies, so that her DNA wouldn't be compatible with anyone of her own species, backfired as she seemed compatible with Chrichton.  
This ruined their plan to put Prince Klavor on the throne so that he could become 'allies' with the Scarrans, and ruined the possibility for a huge advantage over the Peacekeepers.  
Several attempts to kill Chrichton failed, and only resulted in the death of the Scarran Ambassador on the Royal Planet.

This encounter made the Scarrans even more curious about the human.  
They sent a Scarran to capture Chrichton. To learn more about him.  
He was indeed captured, but he managed to escape his mental breakdown, and he killed his attacker. As the news arrived the Scarran homeworld, they were stunned by his persistence.  
But the most interesting of all, was the fact that according to the logs by the Scarran who captured Chrichton, Chrichton was dead.  
Rumours told that Chrichton was immortal, or a sentient being, or a scout for a new race of aliens which were about to attack.  
The Scarran Emperor disregarded these rumours, knowing that these were false.  
But he knew one thing.  
John Chrichton is dangerous.

The Scarran Arnokh was sent to observe Moya at first.  
"They must not know you're coming." The Emperor said to him.  
"If you succeed in not alerting them to you're presence, you will have the element of surprise."  
A special ship was crafted by the Kalish to do the job efficiently: a stealth Stryker, which could create a subspace-bubble around itself, which absorbs every form of light which falls onto the surface of the bubble, and prevents the ship from being detected by the naked eye..  
In other words, it could turn invisible.  
The Kalish also devised a special invisibility harnass so Artokh would have the same ability.

Artokh didn't like this sneaky way of achieving ones goal.  
But it was a direct order from the Emperor. And he would not disobey him, because he was loyal to him.  
Other then some Scarrans he knew.  
Artokh despised them.

After a month he found the Leviathan called Moya, flying through some unknown part of space.  
He would've missed her, if her hull wasn't burning at the time.  
The fire was visible even in the farthest reaches of space, were they thought to have found a new star, only to see it fade away after a couple of weeks, months, or years...  
Artokh followed them. Invisible and silent.  
He was unfamiliar to Moya's crew and had a hard time remembering their names.  
But then he witnessed the destruction of the Shadow Depository, and he would never forget them.

"Aeryn Sun." He said to his prisoner.  
"John Chrichton will not rescue you! He does not care...about you."  
Aeryn was surprised. And shocked.  
"What?" she asked confused.  
Artokh growled again, ignoring her questions, and listening to Chrichton's plan over the comms.

"Listen up." John said to Chiana. "I've got a plan."  
"I'm going to demand a settlement between us and the Peacekeepers, demanding their help in saving Aeryn from the Scarran."  
"Yeah, that's great," Chiana said. "...with their weaponry we can easily take on a Scarran.  
But how will you get them to help us?"  
"If they kill the Scarran, I shall turn myself in."  
Chiana couldn't believe what he was saying.  
"I shall go to Scorpius."

"Do you hear it?" Zhaan said.  
D'Argo listened, heard nothing and turned to Zhaan. "What?"  
"Moya." Zhaan answered.  
D'Argo still heard nothing, but believed her.  
Zhaan is a Pa'u, tenth level Delvian priest, and has always been much more of a spiritual being then D'Argo, was a Luxan warrior, born to fight.  
He smiled as he realised that these two people, with so many differences between the two, were sitting side by side. Fighting side by side.  
"You know where I wanted to go?" D'Argo said suddenly.  
"I wanted to with Chiana and Jothee to a planet somewhere, and become a family again."  
Zhaan saw the tears in his eyes.  
The pain.  
The pain which Harvey manipulated and used to get take over Moya.  
But also the pain of her closest friend.  
"The warrior and the priest." she thought to herself and sat closer to D'Argo.  
"I wanted to become a farmer. Build a home for the three of us."  
He cried again.  
"I wanted to leave this life. This frelling life. This insane and twisted game of life.  
This life of running away. Being a fugitive. This life of violence, and sadness.  
BUT SHE WOULDN'T...SHE COULDN'T...I LOVED HER!"

Aenos the Peacekeeper Commando looked at the Luxan cry.  
"Sad, pathetic beast." He said to himself.  
"Luxans don't cry. They fight. Just as Peacekeepers do. Always fighting.  
Because they were soldiers. And soldiers don't cry. They mustn't cry..."  
This was the first time Aenos the Peacekeeper Commando had ever seen a Luxan cry.  
But it would also be his last time.

"Rellick!" John said.  
He walked into the hangar bay, and watched how the Peacekeepers drew his guns.  
"D'Argo! Zhaan!" John shouted at them as he saw them tied up in front of the ship.  
Aenos held two guns in his hands, both pointing at his prisoners.  
"Harv, you know what to do."  
Chrichton let Harvey take over.  
He was the man with the plan. He knew exactly what to do.  
As Harvey came into possession of Chrichton's body again, he hesitated.  
"Tell them about the Scarran."  
But Harvey said nothing.  
"I'm sorry, John."  
Harvey put his hands into the air.  
"I give myself up."

"What is he doing!" Chiana asked as she looked around the corner at Chrichton.  
Jothee was standing behind her. Both had guns in their hands.  
"This isn't what we planned!"

John was furious.  
He screamed into Harvey's mind, trying desperate to take over again, but Harvey wouldn't let him.  
His power had returned to him: energy absorbed from Chrichton's electrical synapses.  
"I'm sorry, John." Harvey said to him. "I cannot save Aeryn."  
"You sonnavu-"  
"It's too great a risk. I cannot risk the wormhole-technology falling into Scarran hands."

"Let them go." Harvey said to the Peacekeepers.  
Rellick nodded at Aenos, and they did as they promised.  
They let them go.  
Aenos pulled both of them from the floor and pushed them behind Harvey.  
Rellick grabbed Chrichton.  
"Let's go." Harvey said.  
They entered the Marauder, powering up their engines and ready to fly off.

"Pilot!" Jothee screamed.

The doors closed, just as the Marauder wanted to take off.  
"No!" Harvey yelled.  
Quickly they had to put the ship to the ground again, before hitting the ceiling or falling to the ground again.  
They were a couple of metra's above ground, and so if they'd fall onto the floor, something's bound to get broken.

Smoke poured into their lungs as D'Argo and Zhaan watched the Marauder fighting to land again.  
Jothee, Stark and Chiana appeared behind them.  
Jothee smiled.  
"What is going on?" Chiana asked Jothee.  
"Did you plan this?"  
Jothee looked at her and said: "Yes."  
Chiana was mad.  
"Why did you lie to me?"  
"John said that Harvey had to believe that we were actually going to go along with his plan, so he informed you about it to make it look real." Jothee told her.  
"But what Harvey didn't know, was that John told me to expect Harvey to betray him."  
"He knew he was going to betray him." Chiana said.  
"Yes, and so he told Stark, Pilot and me to close the doors if they'd plan to escape and grab the guns."  
Chiana smiled.  
"Now we got Zhaan and D'Argo back, and we got the Peacekeepers right where we want him."  
"But they do still have a hostage." Zhaan said, as Stark cut her free from her bonds and tried to look her in the eyes, but she looked away.  
"They've got Chrichton!" Zhaan said.

"Chrichton...Chrichton...Chrichton!" Stark muttered to himself.  
"Was it Scorpius, was it Chrichton, was it Scorpius? Chrichton!"  
Zhaan didn't even seem to notice him as Stark tried to hold her.  
He has missed her so.  
But all she seemed to care about was Chrichton...

"Chrichton isn't a hostage." D'Argo said as he too rid himself of his bonds and grabbed a gun.  
"He's one of thém."  
"Besides," Jothee said. "They wouldn't kill him. He's too important for them to be killed."  
"Exactly." D'Argo said and stormed at the entrance of the Marauder as it landed.

"We're trapped!" Aenos said as he carefully manoeuvred the ship down.  
There was a loud banging heard on the door.  
Commander Rellick grabbed his gun, before being gunned down himself by D'Argo, who ripped the door off with his strength (and hyper-rage) and fired at both Peacekeepers.  
Rellick was dead, but Aenos survived.  
The crew grabbed Chrichton and left the claustrophobic Marauder, but D'Argo remained.  
He looked at Aenos and pressed the gun into his forehead.

Aenos was sweating and for the first time in his life, he was afraid to die.  
He expected a quick death, because Luxans were vicious, but honourable creatures.  
He closed his eyes, and waited for the afterlife.  
But it didn't come.

"I should kill you, Peacekeeper." D'Argo said. "But I shall not."  
Aenos opened his eyes, and looked at the merciful Luxan.  
"Then you are weak, you crying Luxan."  
D'Argo pressed the gun even further into his forehead, pushing Aenos against the navigation-console of the Marauder.  
"I could kill you, you know." D'Argo went on.  
"I could splatter you're brain all over this beautiful little console. But I will not. And you know why?"  
Aenos said nothing as he looked into Ka D'Argo's aggressive eyes.  
D'Argo sighed as he conquered his rage once more.  
"I am no Peacekeeper." He finally said.  
With a quick move, he pulled his weapon away from Aenos, the Peacekeeper Commando and walked towards the exit.  
Before he left, he turned once more to him.  
"Leave." He said.  
"Don't ever come back."  
He left the Marauder and slammed the door back in it's opening.  
Aenos would never be the same again.

"Pilot," D'Argo said.  
"Let the Marauder leave."

Pilot opened the doors and the Marauder loudly left Moya, without it's prey.

"NO!" Harvey shouted at Moya's crew.  
The crew which he had tormented for so long.  
The crew which he held hostage, tied up, shot, humiliated, manipulated and used, all for one thing: wormhole-technology.  
"Was it worth it?"  
"Tie him down!" Zhaan shouted.  
Chiana grabbed the ropes which the Peacekeepers used to tie up D'Argo and Zhaan and gave one end to Zhaan.  
D'Argo and Jothee grabbed his arms as Zhaan and Chiana tied him up in between two heavy piles of supplies.  
Harvey yelled and shouted and hissed.  
He was defeated.  
But he smiled as he realised he still had his hostages.  
John.  
And Aeryn...

"Are you going to kill me?" Aeryn asked.  
She laid on the floor, succumbed by the poison and heat, unable to move,...unable to scream...  
"I don't have to kill you." Artokh said with his loud rumbling voice.  
"You are going to die anyway..."

Her heart was beating in her throat.  
She tried to reach for her weapon in her shoe, but she was too weak to even lift her arm.  
Sweat went across her eyebrows as she rested her head upon the floor, unable to do anything but watch how the invisible Scarran closed the door, and left her in the darkness. To die.  
"Chrichton..."she whispered in the dark.  
How she hated that man.


	22. The Worst Day of my Life

Hope.  
Still you cling onto hope.  
So many miles away from home, and yet,...you still hope to return someday."  
"Sometimes hope is all we have." John said.  
"You talk like you've never heard of hope before.  
"Doesn't Scorpius hope for something? Doesn't he hope that he will capture me and obtain the wormhole-technology?"  
Harvey sighed.  
"Scorpius doesn't hope he will obtain it. He knows it."  
A waiter appeared and he put some beverages on the table.  
"Thanks." John said as the waiter left, and he took a sip from his drink.  
"Lemonade." John said as he finished it. "Almost forgotten what it tasted like."  
There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the sun was warm, not hot. The wind was fresh, not cold.  
It was a perfect day.  
"Why did you do it, John?"  
"Scorpius won't get me, Harv. He will not dissect my brain! He will not kill me! He will not kill Aeryn! It is over!"  
"AERYN'S DEAD, JOHN!" Harvey shouted back.  
"YOU CANNOT SAVE HER! You could've ended you're miserable life and go to Scorpius, but instead you condemned yourself to...!"  
"TO WHAT, Harv?" John said. "To you? Then my life is truly over!"  
Some other people in the restaurant looked frightened at the odd duo sitting by the window.  
"Scorpius will never stop hunting you." Harvey said. "You will never have one moment of peace. You will run. You will make a living out of running. But one day...he will get you.  
And when that day comes...God have mercy on you're soul."  
"You seem so concerned all of a sudden, Harv." John said.  
"And I thought you were the one who was going to give me to him!"  
"I am only the messenger, John."  
"But you will never get to send you're master's message."

"John?"  
The human was tied up to the two piles of heavy supplies like a sacrifice to King Kong.  
"John? Is it you?" D'Argo asked.  
Guns were pointed at him, but they held back because they knew he couldn't hurt them, because he was tied up.  
"The cure!" John suddenly shouted. "The antidote...! AAARRRGGHH..."  
He was forced back. He screamed and fighted, but Harvey was too strong.  
He coughed up blood.  
His heart was racing. His hands were sweating.  
"I'm sorry to disappoint you again, " Harvey said. "..but I am not John."  
"Bring him back!" D'Argo shouted and shoved his pistol in his stomach.  
Harvey threw up again, gushing blood all over D'Argo.  
"Ah, frell!" D'Argo shouted, looking down on his ruined vest.  
"You shouldn't have done that." Harvey joked.

Chiana kicked Harvey in the crotch.  
He wasn't glad with that.  
"Frelnik! Aeryn needs that cure! Give it to us?"  
"Aeryn is dead!" Harvey said. "Either the poison finally took her life, or the Scarran has!"  
Chiana punched him in the face.  
"You're lying!"

D'Argo turned to Zhaan.  
"If she is still alive..." he said.  
"Then she must be dying." Zhaan said, finishing his sentence.  
"We must find her."  
"We must hurry, before she does not need an antidote anymore."

They ran off.  
"But what about the Scarran!" Stark shouted towards them.  
"He could be anywhere! Invisible! Killing at random!"  
"Dad!" Jothee shouted grabbing something off the floor and throwing it to his father.  
D'Argo caught it from the air and smiled.  
It was his Qualta Blade.  
D'Argo looked at his son, but said nothing.  
He looked away from his son and turned to Stark.  
"Don't worry about the Scarran!"  
He recharged his Blade's power-cells with some spare energy-cells, stolen from the Peacekeepers.  
"I'll take care of him."

They both walked off.  
"They're crazy!" Stark shouted insane. "They can't take on a Scarran! They will be killed! They will burn! We all burn!"  
Jothee smashed his face in, knocking the Banik onto the floor.  
"Thank you." Stark said to him.  
"You're welcome."

Harvey smiled with his broken, bloody smile.  
"And that leaves the happy couple." he said.  
Chiana and Jothee were not pleased.  
"Give us the antidote!"

"Pilot!"  
"D'Argo!" Pilot answered.  
"I'm glad to hear you're all right."  
"Thank you, Pilot. So am I."  
"Where's Aeryn?" Zhaan asked.  
"I'm looking for her anywhere, but my DRD's can't seem to find her!"  
"Any sign of the Scarran?"  
Pilot felt the pain again. It felt like someone was stabbing him in the neck.  
He couldn't breathe for a moment, but did not scream.  
He didn't want them to know.  
"Pilot?"  
Pilot fought through his pain.  
"My scanners have still picked up nothing about it's possible whereabouts." He said.  
"Try scanning for high temperatures." D'Argo said. "Scarrans normally emit tons of heat. It should give away his position.  
Pilot adjusted his scanners.  
"Scanning now." Pilot said.

Artokh didn't make a sound.  
He excelled in stealth.  
He's gone through training, especially for this mission.  
Artokh had a hard time adjusting to his invisibility-harness at first, but gradually learned to move without making a single sound, and in the end the harness fitted him like a glove.

"Is it hot in here, or is it me?" Zhaan said.

Harvey suddenly fell to the ground.  
"The antidote!" he muttered. "Aeryn!"  
"Tell me!" Chiana said and she kneeled before him.  
"Chrichton, can you hear me?"  
John fought desperately to regain control.  
But it was a doomed struggle.  
Harvey tried to grab Chiana, but the ropes held him back.  
He couldn't touch her, and Jothee pulled Chiana out of Harvey's range.  
"...Thanks." Chiana said to him, but Jothee did not look at her.  
Harvey swung forward all of a sudden, scaring the crap out of both Chiana and Jothee.  
He pulled the ropes, trying desperately to free himself, but the heavy piles of supplies never moved one bit.

Pilot jumped in fright as he saw the results of his scans come back.  
"D'Argo! Zhaan!" he shouted. "He's right behind you!"

D'Argo turned in a swift and bold move, and shot down the corridor shooting at nothing but air and...something invisible.  
He managed to fire at the Scarran three times before the Scarran slammed him against the wall.  
Zhaan kept on firing, but the shots didn't even scratch Artokh.  
He mind-probed the Delvian, heating her mind extremely.  
She screamed.

Chiana was shocked to hear this on the comms.  
"Zhaan!" she shouted as she ran off, with Jothee in her footsteps.  
" D'ARGO!"

"Where's Chrichton?" the rumbling voice asked Zhaan.  
Zhaan felt she could burst into flames any second now.  
"Maintenance Bay! The Hangar!"  
Artokh let the Delvian go.  
Killing her or the Luxan was not his objective.  
Capturing Chrichton was.

Artokh witnessed a great deal of strange happenings on Moya.  
He listened in on their conversations, noticing a strange transformation of Chrichton, who attacked his crewmen and tried to take over the ship.  
And then a Marauder was sent from the planet.  
Artokh realised he had to do something.  
He sent his report to his Emperor, and the Emperor sent him an answer.  
"Capture Chrichton, and bring him before me."

And as the Peacekeepers flew into Moya, Artokh followed them, with the intention of capturing Chrichton before they would.

He thought about his plan to capture the human, and knew that he wouldn't go without a fight.  
Chrichton had already survived a Scarran attack, so Artokh knew that he had to use a different approach to capture Chrichton.  
Therefore he captured the one Chrichton seemed to love, and used her as a hostage to bargain over his life.  
He knew that if the Sebecean would not receive treatment, she would die of the poison.  
That's why he thought it would be easy.  
But Chrichton did not show up.  
He seemed unwilling to save his 'mate', and therefore he left her there to die.  
But Chrichton must still be captured...

"Chrichton!"   
The small Hynerian floated towards the human with a big smile on his face.  
"Finally they were smart enough to tie you up! HA!"  
Harvey did not respond.  
"It seems I am the only one on this godforsaken ship who hasn't been tied up today!  
Except for Pilot of course...but he doesn't get very far anyway!"  
Rygel laughed.  
"You seem rather silent all of a sudden. Well, probably because you fear me.  
And that's fine. You should fear me! I'm Rygel the XVI! Ruler over a thousand subjects!  
You all should be trembling at my feet and obeying my orders! HA!"

"D'Argo!" Chiana shouted as she found him unconscious on the floor.  
"Did the Scarran do this?"  
Behind Chiana, Jothee rushed to aid a wounded Zhaan.  
"No,..." D'Argo said as he woke up. "The DRD's did this to us...WHO DO YOU THINK?"  
"I'm just asking. With an invisible Scarran popping up on this ship, I think nothing is impossible today."  
"Today..." D'Argo said as he rubbed his sore head. "The worst day of my life."

"D'ARGO? ZHAAN? CHIANA? Anyone?"  
"We hear you Pilot!" Chiana said.  
"I've found Aeryn!"

"I told them not to trust you!" Rygel went on. "But they wouldn't listen to me...  
I knew that you were trouble, right from the very moment you appeared into this universe!  
John Chrichton, the most notorious criminal in the known universe! HA! Don't make me laugh! If it weren't for me you'd all be dead by now!"

Artokh looked at the annoying Hynerian with his red, frightening eyes.  
He breathed heavily as he saw John Chrichton tied up in front of him. Like he was begging to be captured.

"...you know, if I weren't in such a good mood...I'd kill you right this instance." Rygel went on. "But I won't, because I respect the others to do it for me. Hmph! But they probably won't, because..."

"SCARRAN!" Stark suddenly shouted out.

"Where did that idiot come from?" Rygel said.

"SCARRAN!"  
Stark knew he was there.  
He felt it.  
After living with Scarrans for such a long time, he could even smell them.

AAH!  
With a sudden push Rygel was swept aside.  
Harvey froze as the invisible hand scorched the ropes and took him away.

Rygel stared at the floating Chrichton, not knowing about the invisible Scarran, and afraid for his life.  
"CHRICHTON!"


	23. Silhouette

"Bring Zhaan to the infirmary." D'Argo said to Jothee as he stood up, grabbed his Qualta Blade and walked off.  
Chiana followed him.  
"Pilot?" D'Argo shouted as he ran through the corridor. "Where is she? Where's Aeryn?"  
"Tier 6! The common room!" Pilot said. "And be swift. She doesn't look like she can last much longer."

As D'Argo disappeared from their sight, Jothee lifted Zhaan off the ground and rested her hand over his shoulders, so she could lean on him while they walked to infirmary.  
"Jothee..." Zhaan said to him.  
Jothee didn't know what to think of this woman.  
As he touched her skin he was kind of confused, and a bit scared.  
His father told him Zhaan was a plant. A living plant.  
A walking, breathing, talking plant.  
But her blue skin felt rather soft, and smooth. Not what Jothee had expected a living plant would feel like.  
"Jothee..." Zhaan mumbled again.  
Her head was still spinning from the Scarran mind-probing.  
As the Delvian touched Jothee's skin, she felt his pain. Shared his pain.  
"Do you love Chiana?" she asked.  
Jothee was confused by her question. He had a hard time already trying to carry her to the infirmary, and now she asked this!  
"With all my heart." Jothee answered.  
"Then why do you leave?"  
"My father..." Jothee said. "Every time I'm with Chiana, it causes him more pain.  
And I don't want to cause my father pain."  
"Of course you don't."  
"He's the one who cares more about me then anyone else. He saved me from a life of slavery...and then I do this. I betray him..."  
"I'm a bad son." Jothee thought. "I don't deserve a father like that if I do something like this to him."  
Jothee sighed and looked at the strange blue, living plant to which he confessed his sins and thoughts to.  
It felt liberating.  
But there was one more question that still needed an answer...  
"Will he ever forgive me?" he asked Zhaan.  
Zhaan looked into his sad, green eyes.  
"In time...he will."

"Chrichton!"  
Rygel watched horrified how the human floated away, being held by an invisible claw.  
And then he disappeared.  
"Where did he go?" Stark wondered.

D'Argo looked around and saw the grey Nebari girl following him.  
He didn't call her Chiana anymore. He called her 'the Nebari girl'.  
Because he didn't know her anymore.  
She isn't the one he fell in love with anymore.  
"Why are you following me?"  
Chiana was glad he finally said something to her.  
"I want to help Aeryn!" she said.  
"I'm helping Aeryn."  
"Then I'm helping you!"  
"I don't need help!"  
He stopped in the middle of the hallway and looked her in the eye.  
"Go away." He said.  
His voice was terrifying.  
"No." Chiana said to him, throwing back the threat into his face.  
"Listen to me..."  
"No! There is no time to argue! Aeryn is dying!"  
D'Argo smelled her scent as she walked past him.  
It was like he was standing in that room again.  
Seeing their betrayal all over again.  
D'Argo went mad by the rage that stirred inside of him, but he knew that she was right.  
There was no time for this now.  
Aeryn's life was at stake.  
She could be dead already.

The door opened.  
She was blinded by the sudden burst of light.  
But then Aeryn's heart jumped, hoping to see John standing in the doorway.  
To save her.  
But she didn't see anyone.  
No-one was there to save her.  
She was going to die on this cold floor.  
Tears flowed from her face onto the ground.  
She was a Peacekeeper.  
She didn't fear death.  
She learned to accept it, as a part of life.  
But then why does she fear it so much?  
Movement!  
Something was there!  
For a microt, she feared the Scarran had returned, to haunt her dreams once more.  
Aeryn's breath stopped.  
Maybe this was a dream.  
Maybe this was a nightmare, and she could wake up any second now, embracing her friends once more.  
For a microt, she even believed this story she told herself, but the pain convinced her it was real.  
Maybe she was already dead.  
Maybe this was hell. Her own personal hell.  
Lying on this frelling, cold floor, waiting for someone to come to her aid, but they never will.  
Suddenly something stomped her in the belly.  
She looked down and saw the strangest thing.  
A DRD was administering something to her.  
She felt a slow burst of energy flowing through her veins once more.  
"Pilot?" she asked.  
Her voice was soft, an echo of what it once was. Her throat was hurting her.  
"Moya?"

Rygel tried to alarm the crew, but no-one would listen.  
He stared at Chrichton, only to see him disappear into thin air.  
"Chrichton?"

Harvey suddenly found himself on an unknown craft.  
"The Scarran Eradicator!" he thought by himself.  
Artokh disabled his invisibility-harness, revealing his true face to his captive.  
"Where are you taking me?" Harvey asked.  
"The Scarran homeworld." Artokh answered.  
Just as Harvey suspected.  
They were going to meet the Emperor.

FLASH.

"I've always wanted to meet their Emperor." John Chrichton joked.  
"No, you don't!" Harvey said.  
"You've seen the Scarrans! They are ruthless, murderous monsters! They will not hesitate to kill you! They will cut you up, dissect you and analyse you're body one piece at a time!"  
"And Scorpius wouldn't?" John said.  
Harvey said nothing.

FLASH.

Artokh sat down in the chair in front of him, and tried to activate the ship's engines, but nothing seemed to respond.  
"Explain." He said to the ship's computer.  
Suddenly a high pitched noise was heard. Chrichton could barely make out words from the computer's message.  
"The ship's power supply is low." Harvey translated. "The subspace-bubble generated around the vessel is draining too much energy."  
Artokh messed with the ship's console in front of him.  
"This is our chance to escape!" Harvey said.  
He got up from his feet and made an attempt to run out of the Eradicator, only to be stopped just as he reached for the exit.  
Artokh wouldn't let his prey go that easily.  
He mind-probed him, and forced Chrichton to the ground, only to watch the door close in front of his eyes.

"Aeryn!"  
D'Argo and Chiana found her on the floor of the dark common room, holding a DRD in her hand.

Aeryn saw the silhouette of the courageous Luxan standing in the doorway and smiled.  
"Hi D'Argo." She said.

D'Argo pulled her off the floor and threw the weakened Aeryn over his shoulder once more, running to the infirmary to save her life.  
Chiana was right behind him.

Zhaan drank as much water as she could whilst in the infirmary, because she was dried out because of the heat the Scarran exposed her to.  
"Plants need water." Jothee thought to himself, and smiled.

They both watched D'Argo bring Aeryn in on her shoulders, laying her down on one of the beds.  
"This looks familiar." Aeryn whispered.  
"Yes, it does, doesn't it?" Chiana said smiling.  
"Zhaan, can you help her?"  
Zhaan didn't look very optimistic.  
"Only if we have the cure." she said.  
D'Argo hissed as he realised they were going to have to deal with Harvey again.  
"Chrichton!" he shouted over the comms.  
"Chrichton!"

Artokh grabbed Harvey by his shoulder and threw him back into his seat in the cockpit.  
He heard D'Argo's voice over the comms and ripped the device off of Chrichton's clothing, so he couldn't answer him.

"What's with the comms?" D'Argo asked, but the others did not know.  
"Pilot!" he shouted, but even he did not answer.  
"I will go to Pilot." Chiana said.  
"You do that." D'Argo said, in a very aggressive mood.  
As Chiana ran to Pilot's Den, D'Argo ran into the opposite direction, towards the Maintenance Bay.

"What was taking him so long?" Harvey thought to himself, although he didn't complain.  
This delay meant there was time for Moya's crew to save him.  
They wouldn't let him be captured.  
He was the only one who knew the antidote to save Aeryn's life!  
He smiled.  
If Moya's crew only knew that the answer to save Aeryn was sitting right in front of their noses! Tannot root! A not so delicious, but very healthy plant that can cure a lot of poisons when used right!

Artokh had to disable the cloaking device and re-rout the power to the engines.  
But this was going to take a while, because Artokh was a Scarran, not a Kalish!  
The Kalish mostly do this kind of work, but since they were not here...  
He was going to have to do it himself.

"Pilot!"  
Chiana walked into Pilot's Den, only to find an unconscious Pilot.  
"Pilot!"  
Pilot woke up, recognised the grey girl in front of him and smiled.  
"Chiana!"  
But the smile didn't last long as he was overcome by pain.  
"Pilot!" Chiana shouted and rushed to his aid.

"What's wrong!" she asked.

"It hurts so much." Pilot said.

"What hurts?" Chiana said.

"The pain." Pilot replied softly.

He breathed heavily.

"What is causing the pain!" Chiana asked.

"Everything!" Pilot shouted.


	24. Annihilation

"Chrichton's attack on my central neural system has finally taken it's toll." Pilot said to Chiana.  
"The attack has left scars all over the ship. I feel it still."  
"Can't you repair it?" the sad Nebari girl whispered to Pilot.  
"The DRD's suffer the same. Moya suffers the same."  
"Does she feel the pain as well?" Chiana asked.  
She felt so much for this ship.  
It has been her home for almost one and a half cycle.  
Not as long as the others have, obviously.  
But she felt this bond with Moya, more then the others.  
She has been homeless for almost her entire life, on the run for the Nebari authorities with her brother, but in the end she found her home in the most unlikely place.  
A fugitive Leviathan.  
"I have made sure she doesn't feel a thing." Pilot said.  
"I endure the full pain, so that Moya..."  
Another stroke of pain hit him.  
"...so that Moya will be all right. She has already endured too much. This is the least I could do for her."  
" Why didn't you tell us about it? We could've helped you!"  
"I didn't want to disturb you." Pilot said.  
"Aeryn poisoned, the Peacekeeper attack, the Scarran,..."  
"We could've helped you." Chiana said. "We still can."

D'Argo rushed to the hanger, trying to figure out what happened.  
What did Chrichton do now?  
Or the Scarran?  
Why did Chrichton have to have that wormhole-knowledge in his mind?  
Why couldn't have been someone else?

"D'Argo!" Rygel shouted.  
"What the frell is going on? What kind of magic is this?"  
"What do you mean?" D'Argo asked, holding his Qualta Blade in his hands, ready to fire.  
He looked around and saw the supplies where Chrichton was tied up.  
But Crichton wasn't there anymore.  
"Where is he?" D'Argo shouted at the Hynerian Dominar.  
"He disappeared!" Rygel said. "He's probably flying around the corridors by now."  
"What do you mean flying?" D'Argo asked, clutching his Qualta-Blade in his hands.  
"He was hanging in mid-air! It was like magic!"  
D'Argo knew what was going on.  
"That wasn't magic." He said as he looked around, checking everywhere for possible enemies.  
"That was a Scarran."  
"A Scarran!" Rygel said. "I didn't see no Scarran!"  
"He's invisible." D'Argo said.  
"That's ludicrous!"  
That seemed the most insane idea he has ever heard.  
But then his eyes found a strange mark on the floor.  
Footprints.  
And they were still smoking...

"I don't want to die, Zhaan!" Aeryn shouted. "I don't want to die!"  
Her hands were cold. Her eyes were hollow.  
Zhaan saw her Peacekeeper friend dying in front of her.  
"I can't help you, child." she said softly.  
"Help me..."  
"I can't help you!" she said again.  
Zhaan grew hysterical.  
"I'm so sorry..." she whispered in Aeryn's ears.  
Zhaan cried. She knew she was powerless to save Aeryn.  
"Chlorium!" Jothee said suddenly.  
"We used it before! Maybe it can help again!"  
"Chlorium only dulls the pain." Zhaan said. "It does not cure the poison."  
Jothee didn't say anything after that.  
He tried to help. But he couldn't.  
Chrichton was the only one who could help her.  
"You are strong." Zhaan said to Aeryn. "Be strong just a little bit longer. You can do it."  
"I should be dead." Aeryn said.  
"No..."  
"I should. If Moya hadn't helped me. If she hadn't given me the energy to live.  
To live now..."  
A DRD came swooping in, and stopped by Aeryn's bed.  
Aeryn looked down, dropping her arm from the bed, almost touching the DRD's eye.  
"Thank you, Moya." Aeryn said.  
But Aeryn knew that another surge of adrenaline couldn't, and wouldn't save her life again.  
Or extend it.

"Where did he go?" D'Argo asked.  
"He disappeared!" Stark said. "He's gone, gone, gone, gone, GONE!"  
"I understand! Where did you last see him?"  
"Over there..." Rygel said and pointed towards nothing.  
Literally, nothing, because there was nothing there.  
"An invisible Scarran,..." D'Argo said to himself. "...and an invisible ship."  
But where was it?

The computer of the Scarran vessel rambled on in a high pitched voice, talking in programs and commands so fast that John couldn't understand it.  
Harvey didn't translate, but Chrichton didn't want him to.  
"Re-route power to main power conduct."the Scarran said to his ship. "Now!"  
The computer talked again, and suddenly everything glowed.  
"De-activate cloaking device." Artokh said.  
The computer responded to his rumbling voice.

D'Argo carefully looked around, searching for the invisible ship, but he wouldn't have to look very long.  
With a sudden burst of light the purple 'Eradicator' unfolded before his eyes.  
It looked ancient. Like it had stood there forever.  
"John!" D'Argo shouted, stepping away from the vessel, not knowing what it could do.  
For all he knew it could kill him if he touched it.  
Scarrans were fearless, brutal creatures, and would gladly put every weapon imaginable on their ships, if they knew all weaponry in the galaxy and if it could fit on all of their ships.  
He searched for an entrance, but before he could find one, the ship stirred again.  
It was attempting to become airborne.

"Do something John!" Harvey said to Chrichton.  
"Are you going to stand here and do nothing while this Scarran abducts you, and takes you even further away from Earth!"  
"You mean further away from Scorpius!  
You're only scared that the Scarrans will steal me away from him!"  
"John...!"  
"Let me tell you this!" John Chrichton said to his enemy.  
"Scorpius can kiss my ass goodbye! I prefer the Scarrans over him!"  
"You don't know the Scarrans!"  
"And you do?"  
"Their blood runs through my veins! Everything I do is to stop their conquest! To end their threat upon this universe! And the wormhole-knowledge locked inside you're brain is the key to their defeat!"  
The motors of the Eradicator were becoming louder every microt.  
"And what if the Scarrans get this knowledge?" John said to Harvey.  
"Then the universe is doomed." he calmly answered.

"Pilot!" D'Argo shouted.  
He saw the ship lifting off from the ground.  
D'Argo shot it with his Qualta Blade but his shots barely seemed to hit the ship.  
The shots were absorbed by some energy-field surrounding the ship, but by the fifth shot it hit the hull, draining energy from the 'Eradicator's systems.  
"Pilot!"

"Answer him, Pilot!" Chiana shouted at the blue giant.  
"Answer him, damn you!"

"The ship is about to fly off!" D'Argo shouted, firing shot after shot.  
"Close the doors again! Close them!"

"Do it, Pilot!" Chiana shouted at him.  
"Close the doors! The Scarran is taking John away!"  
Chiana sighed.  
"He's taking Aeryn away!"  
Without Chrichton, no cure.  
Without the cure, Aeryn will die.  
"Close the doors, Pilot! Stop the Scarran!"  
"I can't...the pain..."  
"Frell the pain, Pilot!" Chiana said. "Do it, Pilot! I know you can!  
Pilot!"

The engines heated up.  
The ship was about to escape.

"Pilot!" D'Argo shouted and fired again and again.  
But it didn't do any serious damage to the ship, it only scratched it somewhat.

"Engaging engines."The Scarran said to the Eradicator's computer.   
"Now."

"Chrichton!"

"Pilot!"

With painful movements Pilot closed the outer doors.

"YES!" D'Argo shouted.

"The doors are closed." Pilot said.  
"I knew you could do it, Pilot!" Chiana said.  
"We've saved Chrichton!"

Artokh watched at the doors in front of his ship.  
"Engage primary sequence." he said.  
"Escape while we still can!" Harvey shouted in Chrichton's mind.  
Artokh grabbed the controller and loaded his cannon.  
And then he fired.

The blast blew D'Argo away, pulling his Qualta Blade out of his hands and letting it fly into the air.  
Rygel fainted. Stark lost control of his insanity.

Even in the infirmary they could feel the shock.  
The DRD beside Aeryn's bed stopped bleeping.

Pilot screamed.  
The Scarran just ripped a hole through Moya.

The 'Eradicator' flew away, taking Chrichton with him.

FLASH.

"You've just condemned Aeryn to death." Harvey whispered in John's ears.  
"This is not my fault, Harv!" John shouted back.  
"I couldn't have stopped this!"  
He sighed deeply.  
"This is not my fault...it's yours!"  
He grabbed Harvey by his body-armour.  
"YOU SABOTAGED MOYA! YOU POISONED AERYN! YOU LET THE SCARRAN ON BOARD! YOU LET YOURSELF BE CAPTURED BY HIM! This is you're fault!  
You ruined it for yourself! And you know why? You had too much fun!  
You're a post-modernistic maniac! You enjoyed tormenting us, and thereby you ruined you're own plan!"  
Harvey looked at him.  
"Yes, Harv. Yóu are in my mind. And Í am in yours."  
Harvey smiled, as he looked back upon this day, and knew that John was right.  
"You know how all this crap could have been avoided? You want to know how?  
If you, on that fateful day, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away,...had asked me to help you."  
Harvey looked at him in disbelief.  
"That day, when you put me in the Aurora-chair, when I first met you...If you asked me to help you...If you had asked me to give you the wormhole-knowledge,...I would have said yes.  
I would've helped you with your research, not destroyed it.  
I would've given you what you wanted, in exchange for Earth.  
I could've gone home, and you could've saved the universe.  
But instead...you forced the information out of me.  
But I resisted...I used everything I got to resist you. To RESIST THE CHAIR!"  
Harvey didn't say anything.  
He just looked at him.  
"And I didn't even know anything about the wormhole-knowledge in my head!  
I knew absolutely nothing!"  
Harvey sighed.  
"Indeed, John." He said. "You did know nothing. You were just the messenger.  
And now you will never be able to send your message."  
Harvey grabbed Chrichton.  
He had to kill Chrichton.  
In order to keep the wormhole-knowledge out of Scarran hands.

FLASH.

The Scarran vessel flew away, leaving a great distance between the vessel and the crippled Leviathan.

Another vessel entered the sector.  
"Good Talyn, you have located Moya." Crais said.  
"Contact their Pilot."  
Moya's son, the Leviathan hybrid, born with Peacekeeper modifications and weapons, a warship,...commanded by the reformed Peacekeeper captain Crais entered the Yo´brakh-sector, responding to Moya's distress-call.  
"But what's this?"  
Crais spotted the Scarran Eradicator flying to the asteroid-field.  
"Pursue!" Crais ordered.

Pilot temporarily overcame his pain again, with the help of Chiana, and restored contact with the crew.  
"Talyn is here!" Pilot shouted over the comms.  
"He has come to help his mother!"  
"Tell him to save Chrichton!" Chiana said.   
"TELL HIM!"  
"Talyn is already in pursuit of the craft!" Pilot answered.

Talyn manoeuvred swiftly through the asteroid-field in pursuit of the Eradicator.  
He was faster then the Scarran craft, and was able to quickly catch up with it.

"He's engaged the Scarran vessel!" Pilot said.  
Aeryn felt her hopes coming back, even though she was suffering intolerable pains.  
If she could survive a little bit longer, then she could make it.  
She could make it.

Talyn could almost touch the vessel, so close had he flied to it.  
"Talyn!" Crais ordered.  
"FIRE!"

Talyn opened fire upon the Scarran vessel.  
Four times.  
With the fourth shot, it entirely destroyed the vessel.

Pilot gasped for air.  
"He's dead!" he shouted.  
"Who's dead?" Chiana asked.  
"JOHN CHRICHTON IS DEAD!"


	25. Afterlife

Captain Bialar Crais stood in the doorway of the infirmary.  
He walked in carefully, avoiding Zhaan's eye-contact.  
The Sebecean woman lay on the bed in front of her.  
Dying.  
"I'm so sorry." Crais said, watching her breathe her last breaths.  
"I'm really sorry."  
"It's not you're fault." Aeryn said with difficulty.  
She was pale. Her eyes were hollow, and the light which once shined there, was gone.  
It died, just as Chrichton has.  
"If Talyn and I had known..."

John Chrichton.  
The man who killed his brother.  
A year ago, he would've embraced the death of this human.  
But things have changed.

"How long does she have left?" Crais asked Zhaan, who attended her, but the look on her face said enough.  
Crais stood by her bed, grabbing her hand.  
It was so cold...  
"I have something for you to see." Crais said.  
He pulled a videodisc from the pocket of his uniform.  
"I found this in the Peacekeeper Command datafiles." He explained. "It's a security-video, made when you were just a child."  
"Is it about me?" Aeryn asked.  
"There's more." Crais said.  
He sighed, looking into her dying eyes again.  
"I would've given it to you sooner,... if it weren't for other matters."  
Aeryn tried to answer, but was too weak to even make a sound.  
"I want you to see it. Before..."  
Crais was barely able to say it.  
"Before you die."  
He gave the disc to Zhaan, and asked her to insert it into the holographic viewer.  
She nodded, and helped Crais spend his last moments with Aeryn.

Chiana sat on the table in Command, watching the stars.  
It was quiet.  
She hated the silence.  
It seemed to rip open the universe.  
The young girl screamed. The silence had to stop.  
And Chrichton should be alive.  
She would've given anything in this world for Chrichton to walk in this room again.  
He didn't have to say anything.  
He only had to hold her.  
Her mind wondered off to the time they blew up Scorpius's Gammak Base, leaving John, D'Argo and Aeryn behind.  
She was so scared.  
She would've given her life to see them again.  
But there was no sign of them.  
A month passed.  
Still nothing.  
Until John Chrichton just flew into their lives again.  
Exactly one year ago.  
She held him so tight...

Rygel zoomed passed Command.  
"You could've saved him!" Chiana shouted at him.  
"No, I couldn't!" he shouted back, entering Command.  
His voice was weak and his eyes were wet.  
Chiana saw that he Hynerian missed Chrichton too.  
Although he would never admit it.  
"You know what the last thing that I said to him was?"  
Chiana didn't ask.  
"...I said I'd kill him!" Rygel said and tears went down his face.  
"...And now he's dead!...And it's all my fault..."  
He zoomed off again, and Chiana felt sorry for the little guy.  
She realised that she didn't have to shout at him like that.  
Everyone feels the loss of Chrichton.  
He was a crew-member. A friend. A lover.  
Blessed with the knowledge to get home.  
Cursed with enemies, hunting him down to get that knowledge.  
Doomed with a demon inside his head, killing him to find the key to that knowledge.  
"Maybe he was doomed from the moment he stepped foot in this galaxy." Chiana thought, as she looked at the stars.  
She didn't cry.  
She never cried one single tear.  
She couldn't anymore, because she did not have one single tear left.  
They have all been shed this day.  
Perhaps tomorrow she may cry again...or never...

"'...quiet Aeryn...'"the woman in the video said.  
"'...my name is Xalax Sun...I am you're mother.'"  
Aeryn looked at the woman, recognising her from a dream. Long ago.  
Only it wasn't a dream.  
"...Talyn, you're father, and I,...we want you to know that we love you...and that you were a child of love..."  
Aeryn grew weaker and weaker every second.  
"'...remember that, Aeryn...'"the woman said to the little girl.  
It was Aeryn. Little Aeryn Sun.   
Soon that girl will grow up to be a soldier.  
A Peacekeeper.  
A warrior.  
And then her life changed, as she met him.  
As she met Chrichton.  
She still remembered when she first saw him.  
Laying on the floor in their cell.  
She smiled as she remembered how she kicked his ass.  
A shock in her guts reminded her of her future.  
Little Aeryn Sun.  
A Peacekeeper.  
A warrior.  
And now she was going to die right here. On this bed.  
As she closed her eyes, she smiled, and imagined the face of her lover by her side.  
John smiled at her, as he held her hand lovingly.  
She smiled back.  
She was happy to die, if it meant that she would see Chrichton again.  
That she would be with Chrichton again.

"Aeryn?"  
Crais felt her hand slip from his fingers.  
"Aeryn?"  
He stepped back from her lifeless body.  
Zhaan was shocked.  
"Aeryn!" she shouted.

Pain...suffering...  
She swore to end it all.  
She swore she would protect them all from harm.  
Her friends. Her family.  
But she couldn't do it.  
Now John's dead.  
D'Argo is suffering.  
Chiana is broken.  
Rygel is grieving.  
Stark is confused.  
Pilot's in agony.  
Moya is numb.  
Jothee is leaving.  
And Aeryn is dying!  
She could not bear to watch this family break up in pieces.  
To go down in flames.  
Just like John did...

No.  
John never wanted her to give up.  
He would've done everything he could to save the ones he loved.  
He was brave. He was gentle. He was magnificent. He was stupid.  
He was innocent...

John would've done anything to save Aeryn.  
He has proven this already.

Now what would she do to save the ones she loves?

"This family needs life." Zhaan said to herself.

Crais could not bear to watch her die.  
He turned his face, not to see the tormented look on her face.  
Was she smiling?  
No, she wasn't smiling. She was in pain!  
Suddenly he became so afraid of losing her.  
But why?  
Why did he care so much for her?  
At first he didn't even notice her. Aeryn Sun was just another soldier under his command.  
Not until she brought back his brother's murderer did he notice her.  
He saw she was trying to save his life!  
She was contaminated by this creature!

His rage consumed him then. But not anymore.

He did not care for this Peacekeeper, who joined Chrichton in his escape.  
He wanted Chrichton, and he preferred him dead.  
Not until that fateful day, on which he landed himself in the grasp of the evil Scorpius, and in his Aurora-chair, did he really see her for who she really was.  
A magnificent woman.  
She caused him the greatest pain in the universe.  
And she caused him to change.  
He didn't realise it's effects at first, but it finally hit him in the face when his Command Carrier was blown up.  
He was no longer a captain.  
He was no longer a Peacekeeper!  
He was a renegade! A fugitive for his own kind!  
Just like her...

The feelings he felt for her exploded into his body, screaming to be let out, but he didn't let them.  
Instead he walked away.  
Away from the infirmary.  
Away from Moya.  
Talyn was his friend. His son. His creation.  
They were one and the same, and thought alike.  
Talyn would comfort him. And vice versa.

He thought of the plans he had.  
Of the question he wanted to ask Aeryn.  
To join him. To educate Talyn.  
Together.  
But he knew it wasn't meant to be.  
For her love was meant for someone else.  
The man he murdered.  
And now she was going to join him in the afterlife.  
Now Crais knew that Aeryn did smile.  
She did.

"This family needs life." Zhaan repeated, over and over.  
"LIFE!"

She grabbed Aeryn's head, and pushed it against hers.  
They became one.

Stark felt it.  
He was still sitting in Maintenance Bay. He was thinking about Chrichton, when this surge of energy hit his mind.  
He recognised it.  
He could feel it was her.  
"Zhaan?" he said and ran off to the infirmary.  
"Zhaan, what are you doing!"

Aeryn woke up.  
She did not feel the pain anymore.  
"What is this?" Aeryn said as she felt this extraordinary feeling.  
"We are one." Zhaan said. "This is unity."  
"It's amazing."  
"Yes, it is."  
But Aeryn felt that this was not normal.  
She felt something, some energy, drained from her.  
"Zhaan, what are you doing?"  
"I'm saving you, child." she said.

Stark ran through the corridors, almost knocking over D'Argo in his path.

"You meant everything to John. He loved you. He would've never let you die.  
And I won't let you die either."  
"Stop this!" Aeryn said, as she knew what would happen.  
"No child, "Zhaan said. "This is my last gift to you. This is my last gift,...to John."  
"I want to die...!"  
The bond severed, leaving a unconscious Zhaan on the floor.

Aeryn Sun breathed again.  
She was cured.  
But at what cost?


	26. Last Moments

It was quiet.  
It took a while before Aeryn realised she wasn't dead.  
But still she did not move.  
She kept on staring in front of her, hoping for something to happen.  
Air kept on flowing into her lungs.  
She was alive.  
And there was no more pain.  
How?  
What did Zhaan do?

Chiana stared at the stars.  
The stars stared back.  
"I'm leaving." A voice behind her suddenly said.  
Jothee stood in the middle of the room.  
"After Aeryn's funeral." he said. "...and I won't be saying goodbye.  
You know I don't like goodbyes."  
Chiana looked at him, but didn't say a word.  
"If you're not going to say anything to me," Jothee went on. "...then this going to be a short conversation..."  
"I like short conversations." Chiana said, smiling at the young Luxan.  
Jothee smiled back.  
"I don't want you to leave." Chiana said with extreme difficulty, "I really don't want you to leave. But I know you should. It's the right thing to do, isn't it?"  
Jothee smiled again.  
"I betrayed my father." He said. "That's the worst sin a Luxan can commit.  
But if I stay here...I'd probably do it again."  
Chiana jumped from the table. Both walked towards eachother.  
"I am not honourable." Jothee went on, telling Chiana what a terrible and disappointing man he has been. "I am not a Luxan. Hey, I am only half-Luxan...  
I love you, but I cannot hurt my father anymore. I must leave."  
Chiana smiled and stroked his hair.  
She didn't know what to say.  
And Jothee didn't know it either.  
Both knew he had to go.  
"You know what D'Argo wanted to do when all of this was over?" Chiana said suddenly.  
"He wanted to leave too. With us. He wanted to settle down, be a farmer..."  
Chiana smiled again. She couldn't hide her sadness.  
"...can you see me as a farmer? I couldn't. I never wanted that future.  
I am too young to settle down. Too wild. Too immature.  
Frell, I'm just a kid! I am no farmer's wife!"  
She stroke his cheek.  
"I would not change." she continued. "I cannot change! But D'Argo wanted this dream to come true so badly, so I knew he wouldn't take no for an answer. I knew I had to do something.  
Something terrible. Something he would never forgive me for..."  
Jothee looked into her sad, sad eyes.  
"You used me!" Jothee said slowly, realising what Chiana had done.  
"Yeah...kind of..." she said.  
"I do love you, Jothee...I really do..."  
Jothee grabbed her hand, that stroked his face, and kissed her fingers.  
"...but I will never change. I will always end up hurting the ones I love.  
That's why I keep my distance. That's why I don't like long relationships.  
It's me.  
It's always been me.  
Only me."  
"But I love yóu." Jothee said.  
"That's what I love about you..." Chiana said.  
Jothee kissed Chiana.  
"Goodbye." Jothee said, as their lips separated.  
"I thought you weren't going to say goodbye." Chiana said.  
"I know." Jothee said, turned around and walked away.

"Stark!" D'Argo said, as the Banik almost knocked him over as he ran past.  
"Stark, what the frell are you doing?"  
D'Argo didn't trust Stark's judgement, and sudden insane mood swings, and he followed him to the infirmary.  
"NO!" Stark shouted, throwing himself to the floor, where D'Argo could vaguely see something lying at his feet.  
D'Argo couldn't see it at first, but then recognised Zhaan.  
She was lying next to Aeryn's bed.  
D'Argo freaked, as he saw Aeryn.  
She didn't move, and she was pale.  
D'Argo wandered down the corridors, so that he didn't have to think about Aeryn.  
About her death.  
He didn't want to see it.  
It was too painful.  
He did say goodbye to her, but did not stay to see the ending.  
Stark cried over Zhaan's unconscious body.  
D'Argo didn't understand his reaction.  
Stark cried and screamed, calling Zhaan's name and muttering prayers D'Argo never even heard of.  
"Why is he acting like this?" D'Argo wondered.  
"She's probably passed out, from the stress and pain..." D'Argo presumed.  
"It's hard to see a loved one die. Especially if another has died the same day."  
D'Argo didn't blame Zhaan for fainting, but that Stark reacted so explosive and tense about it didn't make sense to him.  
But when did Stark ever make sense?

Suddenly D'Argo saw something.  
Something he didn't expect to see again.  
Aeryn was breathing.  
"Aeryn?" he asked her.  
"Aeryn can you hear me?"  
Aeryn turned her face and looked him in the eyes.  
"YOU'RE ALIVE!" D'Argo shouted.  
"I never thought I'd see you again! HA HA!"  
D'Argo embraced the weak Aeryn tightly.  
"How is this possible?" he asked her. "Who saved you?"  
Aeryn almost couldn't say it.  
"Zhaan did."  
"But how..."  
And suddenly it hit him, as he looked upon the body of the unconscious Zhaan, laying in the hands of this crying Banik.  
But she wasn't unconscious.  
Zhaan was dead.

Zhaan was a Delvian priestess.  
Tenth level Pa'u.  
Able to share pain from others.  
But Zhaan had exceeded her levels.  
She had now taken Aeryn's pain away...

It wasn't the poison that killed Zhaan.  
It was the pain.  
When she took Aeryn's pain away, it hit Zhaan like a dagger in the chest, hurting her so badly, that she fell to the ground precisely when the connection between her and Aeryn was severed.

"WHY?" Stark shouted.  
"Why give you're life, for this,...for this Peacekeeper!"  
D'Argo looked at Stark, but wasn't able to shout at a man who just lost his lover.  
Aeryn also didn't say anything to Stark, because she asked herself the same question.  
"She said to me..." she thought out loud, "...that this was her gift. Her gift to me.  
Her gift to Chrichton."  
Stark looked up. Again he heard the human's name be mentioned.  
Why did everything revolve around him?

"Stark..." a voice suddenly said.  
Stark smiled as he looked at Zhaan, alive, lying in his arms.  
"Zhaan...!" he said. "..I...I...I thought you were dead!"  
His voice was calm, and sad, and seemed to rip right through Aeryn´s thoughts.  
D'Argo saw this as he stood behind Stark and watched Zhaan.  
"Why are you so afraid?" Zhaan said to Stark. "You have seen so many die in front of you're eyes...so in that perspective you are an expert of dying..."  
"Yes..." Stark said. "I am an expert of dying. I'm just not an expert on you dying..."  
Zhaan smiled, and touched his rusty mask. She felt the energy behind it.  
Aeryn did not look. She had her back turned to Zhaan as she sat upright on the bed.  
D'Argo just watched.  
"Now don't be sad, Stark." Zhaan went on. "You know I love you..."  
"Then why do this?" Stark said to her. "WHY?"  
"In time you will know..." Zhaan said.  
"D'Argo...Aeryn...Pilot!"

Pilot heard her voice.

"Chiana!" Zhaan said.

"Zhaan?" Chiana asked as she heard the voice over the comms.

"Rygel...!"

The wise Hynerian heard her voice and lifted his head in the air.

"Jothee...!"

Jothee was surprised to hear his name. He was about to board a Transport-Pod.

"Jothee..." Zhaan said. "Don't leave without saying goodbye to you're father...he loves you."

Jothee stepped back from the Transport-Pod.

"Moya!"Zhaan went on, saying her last goodbyes to her friends and family.  
"I will miss you."

She smiled, but suddenly the pain forced her back to reality.

"I have lived a wonderful life, Stark." Zhaan said to her lover.  
"And now it is time to say goodbye."  
"WHY?" he said to her again.  
"I give my life for my loved ones."  
"Why, Zhaan!" Aeryn suddenly shouted.  
"Why give your life to save mine! I wanted to die!"  
D'Argo looked at the sad Peacekeeper.  
"I am old. You are young." Zhaan replied. "The old should never live to see the young die.  
It's unnatural. Besides, you have suffered enough for one day...I cannot bear to see my loved ones suffer.  
Not again..."  
She was weak for a moment, but came back again.  
"Aeryn! D'Argo!" she said to them.  
D'Argo came forward and grabbed her hand.  
"I was the protector of Moya! I appoint to you the same task which lay before me!  
Find her a doctor! Help her! Help Pilot!"  
They agreed.  
And then Zhaan turned to D'Argo, the warrior.  
"And be happy."  
Then suddenly she faded away from life.  
Stark desperately tried to hold on to her spirit.  
"NO!" he shouted.

A blue light shined from Zhaan's body. A light only Stark could see.  
"Help me, Stark!" Zhaan said in his mind.  
"Guide my spirit to the other world!"  
Stark removed his mask.  
His energy was unleashed upon her spirit.  
As the blue light faded away, the fire which burned in her heart was gone.  
Zhaan had died.

"No,...no,..." Stark muttered, not letting go of her body.  
Stroking her blue skin. Kissing her blue lips.  
But the fire was gone.  
"Why?" Stark asked himself still.  
"Why did you have to die?"

Aeryn did not dare to look at Stark.  
"She said it was her final gift to me." she told the Banik. "Her final gift to John..."  
"John!" Stark shouted, and jumped up, still holding the body of Zhaan in his hands.  
"JOHN CHRICHTON!" the Banik shouted.  
"Everything revolves around him!"  
D'Argo tried to calm him down, afraid that he might drop Zhaan's body, or hurt himself, or hurt them.  
"Stark..." he said, but he wouldn't listen.  
"HOW MANY MORE MUST DIE FOR THE LOVE OF CHRICHTON?" Stark shouted.  
With Zhaan in both hands, he pointed at Aeryn.  
He turned and pointed at the burned bodies of the Peacekeepers, taken to infirmary, covered with sheets.  
"HOW MANY MORE?" he said looking at the deceased Zhaan, lying so peacefully in his arms.  
"Stark..." D'Argo tried to interrupt, but still Stark wouldn't listen.  
"NO!" he shouted, and pushed him aside.  
He walked out of the infirmary.  
D'Argo followed him, hearing only a scream coming from the corridor where Stark went, but he was no longer there.  
D'Argo tried looking, but couldn't find him.  
He was gone.

Aeryn waiting for an arn, until she was strong enough again to walk into Command.  
She was still weak, but D'Argo supported her so she could walk normally and stand normally while she could talk to the rest of Moya's crew.  
All were gathered here.  
Rygel, Chiana, D'Argo and Aeryn stood in a circle, and Jothee stood in a corner.  
Pilot listened over the comms.  
"John wanted to give his life for me." Aeryn said. "Zhaan actually did it."  
She was suddenly overcome by a strong emotion of grief.  
They both died because they tried to save her.  
But no more.  
No-one would ever decide her destiny for her.  
She would take control.  
"If they would still live now." Aeryn continued, helped by D'Argo, "...then they would've only wanted us to do one thing: and that is the reason that we came her in the first place.  
Help Moya."  
All understood, and agreed that which Aeryn proposed.  
"Pilot, "Aeryn said. "Open a channel with Talyn."  
"Channel opened." Pilot said as he created a communications-link with Talyn.  
"Crais?" Aeryn said.  
At first Crais wasn't visible on screen, but suddenly he appeared from behind a console.  
He had been crying in a corner, but he had quickly wiped away his tears and spoke to Moya's crew without giving away his emotional state.  
"Aeryn?" he asked surprised. "You are alive?"  
"Yes. I am."Aeryn answered cold, as she was stating the obvious.  
"But how?"  
Aeryn couldn't explain it to Crais.  
She could not live through it again.  
She wanted to forget it. Living with the memories as a scar.  
She knew it wasn't the right thing to do, but she had to.  
It was the only way to survive.  
"Zhaan brought me back." she said to Crais.  
Crais wanted to ask further, but Aeryn interrupted him.  
"Do you still have the co-ordinates to the Diagnosian you found?"  
Crais was surprised to see Aeryn jump from one subject to another so quickly, but he respected her wishes and did not ask any more questions about it.  
Not yet.  
Not now he has got a second chance with her.  
"Yes, Talyn and I still have the co-ordinates stored in our navigational database." Crais answered.  
"Can you take us there?" D'Argo asked.  
"Yes, I can."  
"Then take us there." Aeryn said.  
"I shall send the co-ordinates to you're Pilot."  
"Affirmative." Aeryn said.  
"And Crais?"  
Crais was about to break the link, but waited.  
"Yes?" he asked.  
"Thank you for my last moments." Aeryn said, showing him the data-disc which she held in her right hand.

"Weren´t you leaving?" Chiana asked Jothee and approached him , while he was standing in the corner.  
"I changed my mind." Jothee answered.  
"Why?" Chiana asked.  
"Unfinished business." He answered, and looked towards his father, standing in the doorway.  
D'Argo heard his words, but didn't say anything.  
He walked away, supporting Aeryn with his left-shoulder to walk back to the infirmary.  
Chiana knew what Jothee meant and left him alone.  
Jothee bowed his head, seeing his father walk away silently.  
"Why don't you talk to you're son, D'Argo?" Aeryn asked the tired and sad Luxan.  
He sighed. He would not lie against Aeryn.  
"Because every time I see them, " D'Argo said. "they remind me of their betrayal."  
Aeryn said nothing, and knew that time would heal all wounds.  
Even hers.

"Yes, Talyn." Bialar Crais said to his friend. "Aeryn Sun lives."  
"Yes, Talyn." Crais said again. "We do have been given a second chance...  
We can still be with Aeryn."

Pilot analysed the co-ordinates which Talyn sent him, and calculated a trajectory to the real planet called 'Valadoc', where a Diagnosian waited to cure him and Moya.

Talyn and Moya left the asteroid-field, leaving the Yo'brakh system.  
Leaving their pain behind.  
The planet seemed to stare at them in the distance, following them until they couldn't be seen no more...

It was so dark.  
So scary. So empty.  
Outer space could be all those things combined, and more.  
"Don't worry, John." Harvey said, as they floated through the asteroid-field and through the vacuum of space.  
"You're far too valuable to die."  
John couldn't say anything back. The only thing he could think about was Aeryn.  
He couldn't save her...  
"I'm keeping you out of harm, John." Harvey continued, using the energy of the neural-chip to power John's heart, lungs, and brain.  
"I'm keeping you safe. As always..."


	27. Epilogue

It was night.  
The stars shined brightly on the mountains of Yo'brakh.  
The tops reflected the light of Yo'brakh's three moons.  
From behind the clouds a gigantic vessel appeared, descending in the planet's atmosphere.  
A small Peacekeeper vessel emerged from it's underside.  
Lightning crossed the sky. Thunder camouflaged the sound of the approaching ship.  
Rain fell down upon the cold landing pad.  
Three men stood in the pouring rain, wearing black plastic raincoats over their uniforms, awaiting the arrival of the ship.  
They covered their ears in pain as the vessel landed merely a metra away from their feet.  
As the doors opened, the three men could not see the man who stood in front of their eyes, as he stood in the dark shadow of the ship.  
As lightning lit up the sky, so did it light up the man.  
Officer Moxan nearly jumped up from his feet at the look of this man.  
He was as pale as a dead man.  
He wore a black, leather suit, which was as dark as the interior of the ship in which he came. The suit reflected the lightning and became wet in the pouring rain.  
In the eyes of the man a fire burned.  
"Glad to see you, sir." Luitenant Bracca said to the man.  
Officer Moxan's breath stopped.  
He heard of this man, Scorpius, but had never seen him before.  
And now he wished he never had.  
Scorpius was a monster. A freak.  
A hybrid. A hazard.  
"Hello, luitenant." The hybrid said to his inferior. He didn't even pay any attention to Commander Moxan or the man accompanying him.  
"Have you found him, luitenant?" Scorpius asked Bracca.  
The rain poured down on them all.  
Thunder shouted in their ears.  
"I have, sir." Bracca answered.  
"John Chrichton is waiting for you."  
Scorpius smiled.  
"You are going to be one hell of an officer someday, luitenant Bracca." Scorpius concluded proudly.  
The three moons of Yo'brak have never shined brighter then on this day.  
The day that Scorpius captures Chrichton...

TO BE CONTINUED

-The story continues in the fic "Season of Vengeance".


End file.
